Plans Begun for Teresa of Avila's 500th Birthday

ROME, JULY 19, 2009 (Zenit.org).- A commission of Discalced Carmelites is already preparing for the celebration of the 5th centenary of the birth of St. Teresa of Jesus, which will be celebrated in 2015.

The celebration for the saint, also known as St. Teresa of Avila, will be directed by this commission, which was appointed after an initiative of the order's general chapter.

The Carmelite vicar general, Father Emilio Martínez, will head the commission and will be assisted by Father Alfredo Amesti, a press release on the order's Web page reported.

The executive committee will coordinate various topical sections of activities.

The section for community projects will prepare study aids for each of St. Teresa's books as well as dynamics and activities to help individual, community, and lay reading of these works.

The pastoral projects section will organize activities with a special focus on young people, including the upcoming World Youth Day in Madrid in 2011.

The task of the cultural projects section will be the organization of seminars, conferences and other academic activities in collaboration with the Teresianum College in Rome, the International Teresian-St. John Center of Avila and other Carmelite institutes.

Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada was born March 28, 1515 in Avila and died October 4, 1582 in Alba de Tormes. She founded the Discalced Carmelites, a branch of the Order of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, and was a mystic and writer, and a doctor of the Church.