SANTA TERESA di Ges?(28 March 1515 - 15 October 1582) Spanish religious and mystic; doctor of the Church; writer of great importance in the Catholic Reformation; as well as founder of the Discalced Carmelite nuns and friars; depicted in ecstasy with her heart pierced by an arrow divine. Canonized on 12 March 1622 by Pope Gregory XV; she is commemorated on 15 October; the day of her death (Dies Natalis; birth into heaven). Colored engraving from the early 19th century