Life (1747-1770)
Anna Marie was born into a large, noble and devout family in Arezzo Italy in 1747. From the earliest days of her childhood, Anna was filled with a deep love of God questioning the adults around her as to “Who is God?” Already she was dissatisfied with answers given her. Only the contemplative life of a Carmelite nun could begin to quench her thirst to know and give herself completely to God. Her entire life was driven by the desire to “return love for love.”
She entered the Carmelite convent in Florence at the age of seventeen, advanced rapidly in holiness and died an extraordinary death at twenty-two. She was a model religious with an astonishing depth of spirituality, purity of heart, humility and ardent love for the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She was given a special contemplative experience of the words of St John, “God is love” and she lived in fidelity to this experience by a hidden life of love and self-gift.
True to the tradition of the Order, Teresa Margaret was utterly devoted to Our Lady whom she regarded as the model and protectress of her own virginal purity.
The cornerstone of St Teresa Margaret’s spirituality was to remain hidden, to appear just like everyone else’ in spite of her heroic virtue. To our loss, she has remained very much hidden even after her death. Fr Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen commented “This is an odd fact, for we do not hesitate to rank her among the primary figures who represent the glory of Carmel – among Teresa of Jesus, John of the Cross and Thérèse of the Child Jesus.”
Although St.Teresa Margaret led a life of exquisite holiness and purity, it was also a life that is whollyone of imitation. In her were combined Martha and Mary, as she served her community as a nurse in the Infirmary, while reaching the heights of contemplation.
After her death all the swelling and discoloration in her body disappeared, her body was incorrupt several weeks later, had a healthy glow and exuded an odour of perfume. Pope Pius XI Canonised her on 13 March 1934.
I, who am less than the least of all the saints, have been entrusted with this special grace, not only of proclaiming to the pagans the infinite treasure of Christ but also of explaining how the mystery is to be dispensed. Through all the ages, this has been kept hidden in God, the creator of everything. Why? So that the Sovereignties and Powers should learn only now, through the Church, how comprehensive God's wisdom really is, exactly according to the plan which he had had from all eternity in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is why we are bold enough to approach God in complete confidence, through our faith in him. This, then, is what I pray, kneeling before the Father, from whom every family, whether spiritual or natural, takes its name: Out of his infinite glory, may he give you the power through his Spirit for your hidden self to grow strong, so that Christ may live in your hearts through faith, and then, planted in love and built on love, you will with all the saints have strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth; until, knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond all knowledge, you are filled with the utter fullness of God. Glory be to him whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine; glory be to him from generation to generation in the Church and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen.
Elpina the shepherdess
Burning with a great desire
To know how God
Could be loved upon earth,
Wept alone one day
And in the woods
Uttered these words:
“Eh! Who can teach me
to love God Who loves me
and Who, before the existence
of the world He created
with this same love
of His Heart Divine,
loved me…”
While thus grieved
she wept to herself
not being able to console
the pain of her heart;
the virgin, now a hermit,
swooned and fell–
a prey to languor…
Behold, there before her,
ornate with gilded wings,
brimming with celestial delight,
stood suddenly a gracious spirit,
and his loving lips
like lilies and roses
opened into these beautiful accents:
“Elpina, how can you say
You do not love God,
When your very desire
Of loving is love itself?
It is the sweet flame
Which escapes from
The secret furnace of your Heart.”
Musical Selection
Collect
Father,
you enabled St Teresa Margaret Redi
to draw untold resources of humility and charity
from the fountain-head, our Saviour.
Through her prayers may we never be separated
from the love of Christ.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.