ST. TERESA OF JESUS “OF THE ANDES” (Juana Fernandez Solar) was born in Santiago, Chile on July 13, 1900. Her parents were wealthy and had six children. Juana, the fourth, was affectionately called Juanita by her family and friends. Juanita did not start off as a saintly child. She worked hard to overcome her tendencies toward vanity and pride as a little girl. While she did possess an inclination to piety, she often manifested her fiery temperament. When she was ten, she made her First Communion. This event changed her completely. She recounted that it was truly “a fusion between my soul and God.” Each time she received Communion, she records that “Jesus spoke with me for a long time.”

Nevertheless, she was an ordinary teenager, who loved parties and dancing, excelled in horseback riding, tennis, croquet, and was an excellent swimmer. She had a lovely voice and a talent for music, playing the piano, and harmonium. She did very well in school but valued her membership as a Child of Mary over all her other accomplishments. Juanita was a beautiful young woman, and her diary reveals the struggles she had to grow in virtue. This intimate, personal account also records frequent bouts with bad health, and she realized that her life was to be one of suffering and love. She witnessed to the power of love and faith within her family circle and with friends, displaying a particular love and mercy towards her wayward brothers: one a proclaimed agnostic and the other who lived a bohemian lifestyle. Juanita was remembered as the bond of love that united her struggling family relations in the midst of difficult times.

She had a deep devotion to Our Lady and prayed the Rosary every day. At fourteen she made a vow of virginity and resolved to become a Carmelite nun. This decision may have been influenced by her reading of the autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux, Story of a Soul. Like St. Therese, she strove for holiness wherever she found herself: at home, at school, with her young friends.

On May 7, 1919, she entered the Carmelite Monastery of Los Andes and was given the name Teresa of Jesus. Her joy was great in Carmel. She wrote: “It is impossible to imagine how happy I am. I feel peace and an intimate joy.” She saw everything that happened to her as coming from the hand of God and joyfully looked for opportunities to offer sacrifices to Him. Shortly after her entrance into Carmel, her health, which had always been precarious, began to fail. She became desperately ill with typhus and, in view of her impending death, was allowed to make her Solemn Profession. She died on April 12, 1920 at nineteen, having lived in Carmel a brief eleven months. She was beatified on April 3, 1987 and canonized by St. John Paul II on March 21, 1993. She is proposed as a model for young people and is the first Chilean and the first member of the Teresian Carmel in Latin America to be canonized. Her feast is celebrated on July 13.