Venerable Blessed Anne of Jesus

Ana de Jesús, known in English as Anne of Jesus (25 November 1545 – 4 March 1621), was a Spanish Discalced Carmelite nun and writer. She was the founder of the Carmelite reform and a close companion of Teresa of Ávila, and served to establish new monasteries of the Order throughout Europe. Known as a mystic and for her writings on prayer, she has been beatified by the Catholic Church. Born Ana de Lobera y Torres in Medina del Campo in the Province of Valladolid, her parents were Diego de Lobera and Francisca Torres, who also had a son called Cristóbal, who became a Jesuit. As a small child she was assumed to be deaf and dumb. However, she started to talk at the age of seven. Her father died some months after her birth, and her mother died too when Ana was nine years old, so she was left an orphan and went to live with her father's relatives. Having made a vow of virginity, Lobera entered the Monastery of St. Joseph in Ávila, founded by Teresa of Ávila, in 1570. In 1571, while still a novice, she was sent to a new foundation in Salamanca, where she professed religious vows on 22 October, and she remained there until 1575. That year she accompanied Teresa for the foundation of the Monastery of Beas, Spain, of which she became the first prioress. After being in a new monastery in Granada, Ana made a foundation at Madrid (1586), where she also served as a prioress. It was there that she became involved in a dispute which was to have long-term repercussions. The friar in charge of the monastery, Nicholas of Gesu Maria Doria, made changes requiring severe rigidity in the Constitutions of the nuns, drawn up by Teresa with the assistance of Jerome Gratian, and approved by a chapter in 1581. His intentions was, that by concentrating all authority in the hands of a committee of external officials, he could thereby guard the nuns against any relaxation of their life.