OVERVIEW OF RELIGIOUS MYSTICS

An overview of selected religious mystics:
St Teresa of Avila (1515-1582):
Born March 15th 1515 in Spain.
Family inspired her to take her religious life seriously
1535 she joined an order of Carmelite nuns.
After a severe illness she became disillusioned with her religious practices, especially
prayer.
A vision of…

stage of spiritual marriage. The main experiences associated with this stage can include
rapture, feelings of painful longing, spiritual ecstasy and visions. The over-riding
characteristic is the sense of wanting to be able to spend every possible moment alone with
the divine `spouse' and the complete rejection of all things…

Via Negativa
He also presented a form of language to describe God that some describe as a `via negativa'
For Eckhart, applying any kind of finite language to God was inappropriate for it didn't
encompass the quality of God being infinite. Therefore, Eckhart would often say that God
was `not…