Saint Teresa of Avila

I had the joy of telling my student who Satin Teresa of Avila was today. I know at least one student thought that the reference was to Mother Theresa. Here's what Lorca wrote about Teresa in his lecture on the duende:

Recordad el caso de la flamenquísima y enduendada Santa Teresa, flamenca no por atar un toro furioso y darle tres pases magníficos, que lo hizo; no por presumir de guapa delante de fray Juan de la Miseria ni por darle una bofetada al Nuncio de Su Santidad, sino por ser una de las pocas criaturas cuyo duende (no cuyo ángel, porque el ángel no ataca nunca) la traspasa con un dardo, queriendo matarla por haberle quitado su último secreto, el puente sutil que une los cinco sentidos con ese centro en carne viva, en nube viva, en mar viva, del Amor libertado del Tiempo.

She is infused with the spirit of the duende, she is "flamenquísima." Not because of her bullfighting prowess (though she had that) and not because she slapped the emissary of the Pope (though she did that too, but because the dart of the duende pierced her and almost killed her because she had revealed its ultimate secret.

My students had a hard time with the idea that a woman who rebelled against the church and was persecuted by it would end up being a saint. Welcome to Spanish literature and its wonderful contradictions.