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Teresa of Ávila (1515–82, also known as St. Teresa of Jesús, Teresa of Ahumada, and Teresa of the Cross) was a Spanish mystic, a Carmelite nun, and a reformer of orders (Religious Orders and Congregations 1). Teresa came from a family of conversos (her grandfather was converted from Judaism to Christian faith in 1485) who purchased their title of nobility. According to her autobiography, Vida, or Libro de las misericordias del Señor (1565, Book of the mercies of the Lord), Teresa, as a child in 1522, wanted to flee to the Moors with her brother Rodrigo in order to …

Meister Eckhart (ca. 1260-ca. 1328), a Dominican mystic, was born in Hochheim (near Gotha or Erfurt) in Thuringia. Eckhart entered the Erfurt Dominican monastery around 1275. After completing the usual training, he studied theology at the Dominican Studium Generale at Cologne, probably under Albertus Magnus (d. 1280), and from 1293 at Paris. In 1294 he became the prior of Erfurt and representative of the provincial Dietrich von Freiberg. In 1302 Eckhart was promoted to master in Paris. From 1303 to 1311 he was active as the first provin…