St. Teresa of Avila (SAU 28) Greeting Card

Right Panel: An angel pierces St. Teresa’s heart with a flaming arrow. The image recalls her most famous vision. St. Teresa’s motto appears in the scrollwork above the figures. It reads: “Aut pati, aut mori” (“Either suffer or die” or, less tersely, “[Lord, let me] either suffer or [let me] die”). The text below the figures reads: “Misericordias qui in aeternam cantabo” or “I will sing Your mercies forever” after Psalm 89(88):2 and “Sancta Theresia a Jesu, o[ra] p[ro] n[obis]” or “Saint Teresa of Jesus, pray for us”. Upper Left: St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross, her confessor and fellow Carmelite reformer, beneath an image of the Holy Trinity. The text reads: “Seraphim stabant e volabant Isa VI.ll”. It is a much truncated version of the Biblical verse which reads in its entirety: “Seraphin stabant super illud sex alae uni et sex alae alteri duabus velabant faciem eius et duabus velabant pedes eius et duabus volabant” or “Above him stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. Isaiah 6:2 (ASV - American Standard Version)”. The caption has reduced this lengthy quote to: “The Seraphim were standing and flying”. Lower Left: The death of St. Teresa in the arms of Bl. Anne of St. Bartholomew, her secretary and close friend. The image is captioned: “A [true] daughter of the Catholic Church [is] about to die!” or “Qemum morior Ecclesiae Catholicae filia!”. + Feast: October 15 + Image Credit (SAU 28): Antique image of St. Teresa of Avila, chromolithograph with gilt highlights from the Almanach Catholique de Belgique for the year 1888 (9th year of printing; Bruges and Lille: Société St. Augustin; Desclée De Brower et Cie, [1889]), n.p. From the designer’s private library.