First published 2023
Teresa of Avila confronts a maze of legal battles, dowry disputes, and bureaucratic obstacles as she works to establish new convents across Spain. Unscrupulous businessmen scheme against her mission while endless red tape threatens to derail her plans. Rather than viewing these worldly troubles as impediments to her spiritual calling, Teresa discovers that navigating lawsuits and marketplace corruption becomes the very crucible of her holiness. Each fraudulent contract and administrative delay tests her virtue in ways that cloistered prayer never could. Through dealings with dishonest merchants and entanglement in financial disputes, she learns that sanctity grows not in spite of daily struggles but through them. Her journey reveals how spiritual growth flourishes in the messy realities of business and bureaucracy rather than in the sheltered quiet of religious life.
Genres: christian, historical-fiction, biography-memoir
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, fish-out-of-water
280 pages · Paperback · Legare Street Press