Madre Teresa was fifty-two years old when she met twenty-five year old Fray Juan de Yepes, a Carmelite novice at Salamanca. She needed reliable confessors for her nuns in the reformed monasteries.

Given the facts, likely Juan was caught off-guard by Teresa’s style. Sunny, personable and determined, Teresa seemed to be his opposite. Inexperienced, artistic and deeply ascetic, Juan yearned to unite his simple joy in creation with the poverty of Christ. Teresa recognized his sanctity, noting in her journal that she could learn more from him than he could learn from her.