1622, the Fatal Year for the Discalced Carmelites: The Canonisation of Teresa, the Crystallisation of Conventual Typologies, and the Reinvention of Iconography

Abstract

Abstract 1622 was a crucial year for the Discalced Carmelite Order. This essay intends to highlight and connect a series of events surrounding the fateful canonisation of the foundress Teresa of Ávila on 12 March 1622. On 6 January of that year, the Congregation of Propaganda Fide had been founded with the fundamental contribution of Carmelite missionaries. On 8 May 1622, the important Carmelite Church of San Paolo Apostolo in Rome was re-consecrated to Santa Maria della Vittoria, with celebrations and popular processions, in memory of the “victory” of the White Mountain in 1620 over the Protestant Bohemian troops, favoured by the intercession of Maximilian of Bavaria’s military chaplain, Carmelite Dominic of Jesus Maria. In the years that immediately followed, numerous male and female foundations dedicated to the newly-canonised St. Teresa proliferated in Rome and Italy, according to common iconographic and conventual models elaborated centrally by the order’s new hierarchies.