Born in Santiago, Chile her Baptismal name was Juana Fernandez and she was the fourth of six children. 

Her parents, Miguel and Lucia, were devout Catholics and, as a young girl, she read The Story of a Soul by St. Therese of Lisieux and was Blessed with a call to a much deeper journey with The Lord. 

In 1919, she entered the Novitiate of The Discalced Carmelites in Los Andes and took the name: Teresa of Jesus. 

Very soon after, she began an apostolate of letter writing, sending out her spiritual thoughts and insights. But, almost as quickly, she contracted typhus and became gravely ill. 

She took her final vows and then, on this day in 1919 six months before her 19th birthday, she died. 

After her death and, in part, because of her writings, Teresa became extremely popular in Chile, becoming known as The Flower of the Andes. 

She was Canonized in 1993 by St. Pope John Paul II and every year more than 100 thousand pilgrims visit her Shrine. 

St. Teresa of Los Andes, please pray for us.