Teresa de Jesús

Teresa de Jesús is a Spanish television mini-series produced by Televisión Española and broadcast in its Primera Cadena in 1984. Directed by Josefina Molina and written by Víctor García de la Concha, Carmen Martín Gaite and Molina herself, it stars Concha Velasco as Teresa of Avila.

The 450 minutes eight episodes mini-series was also released as a 222 minutes feature film. It also exists a four episodes shortened version.

It presents the life of Teresa of Avila, a Spanish saint, mystic, and doctor of the Roman Catholic Church,[1] who was at one time proclaimed "patron saint of the Spanish race"[2]: 227  by the Spanish government, and has been proposed on multiple occasions since her death to be an official patron saint of Spain.[2] Its dialogue is in Spanish, but versions with English subtitles are available.[3][4] The film stars Concha Velasco as Teresa. Also appearing are Gonzalo Abril as Lorenzo de Cepeda (Teresa's younger brother, 2/8 episodes), María Massip as Juana Suárez (Teresa's friend, 2/8 episodes), Francisco Rabal as Peter of Alcantara (1 episode), Héctor Alterio (1 episode), and Marina Saura as another nun (8 episodes). It tells the story of Teresa's life from age 23 (in the year 1538) until her death at age 67 (in 1582).

Teresa de Jesús was originally broadcast from 12 March to 30 April 1984, in the following 8 episodes:[5][6]

In 2008, the film was released in the US as a 3-disc DVD set with English subtitles.[3] It included a 16-page booklet with episode summaries, Teresa's biography (4-pages) and timeline (1 page), a set of 9 discussion questions,[10] an interview with historian Thomas Dubay, and a bibliography for further reading.[11]

Teresa de Jesús won several awards:[12]

Full episodes (no subtitles):

Excerpts: