Anna of Jesus was born in Medina del Campo (Castile – Spain) on 25th November 1545, died in Brussels on 4th March 1621.
In 1570, she was received by St Teresa herself into the first monastery of the reform in Avila; in 1571, she followed Teresa to Salamanca, where on October 22nd, 1571 she made her profession. Led by the saint to the foundation of Beas in Andalusia, under obedience she then had to go to Granada (1581) to open a monastery, the only one that, while St Teresa was living, was not founded by the Saint herself. There she obtained from St John of the Cross, who called her "seraphim" and appreciated her very much, the commentary on the Spiritual Canticle, dedicated by St John to Anna. In 1586 she founded a monastery in Madrid, where she worked a lot for the first edition of the works of St Teresa (1588), and where she had to support the first struggle to defend the spirit of St Teresa against the ideas of Doria and his Council. Punished, she then moved to Salamanca (1584), where she was elected prioress (1586). In 1604, with Bl. Anna of St Bartholomew and four other nuns, led by Peter Bérulle, she went to France where she founded the monasteries of Paris (1604), Pontoise and Dijon (1605). Some disagreements with Bérulle, who seemed to be giving the French Carmel an imprint that did not correspond to the Teresian ideal, and her desire to be directed by the Discalced Carmelite friars, pushed Anna to accept the invitation of the archdukes of Belgium to move to Flanders, where she founded the monasteries of Brussels, Leuven and Mons (1607). Back in Brussels, after a few years of great interior and physical suffering, she died there leaving a reputation of great holiness also proven by graces and miracles.
The cause of beatification was begun immediately after her death: after the ordinary processes were completed, the cause was introduced in Rome on 2nd May, 1878, and on 2nd May, 1885, the writings were approved, spiritual letters that revealed in them her deep interior life and extraordinary prudence.
The decree on her heroic virtue was promulgated on 28th November, 2019.
