# Thomas á Jesu

Thomas á Jesu, OCD (1564 – 24 May 1627) was a Discalced Carmelite and writer on mystical theology who is principally known for establishing the Carmelite hermitages known as "deserts", and for his writings on prayer.

## Biography

Thomas was born in Baeza in southern Spain. His parents were Don Baltasar de Avila and Dona Teresa de Herrera. While studying law at the University of Salamanca (he graduated in 1583), he read some of the unpublished writings of Teresa of Avila and in 1586 he became a monk in her order.
He filled many offices as a priest and founded both "desert" hermitages and ordinary convents across Europe while writing on Catholic theology. He died in Rome in 1627.

## Deserts

Thomas's deserts were in the tradition of the 16th-century Carmelite reform movement, facilitating intensive, personal, deep relationships with God. They were inspired by the life of the first Carmelites who lived on Mount Carmel in Palestine in the 1150s. He founded the first, es:Desierto de Bolarque, in Bolarque, Spain, in the summer of 1592.
A desert consisted of about 24 small apartments, each with its own walled garden, and a common chapel, kitchen/refectory and library. Four hermits lived there permanently, while the remainder of spaces were occupied by priests from elsewhere who were allowed to spend one year living the desert life, after applying and being deemed able to withstand the strict rules. The monks maintained absolute silence. They kept the hours of the Divine Office and spent their time in prayer and manual labour. They ate a vegetarian diet and practiced fasting. Even smaller buildings dotted around the property (which was allowed to grow wild) were used for monks who wished to live in total isolation for Advent or Lent.
Thomas founded four deserts in Spain: at Bolarque, Las Batuecas, Las Nieves, and one in Catalonia. Other priests went on to found deserts in Santa Fe, Mexico (1606), Varazze, Italy (1616), Czerna, Poland (1631), Mannersdorf, Austria (1644). The movement reached its peak, with 22 deserts, in the 17th century, but only one, at Las Palmas, Spain, survived dissolution by church leaders in the 19th century.

## Writings

Part of a series on :
Christian mysticism :
Theology and philosophy
Apophatic
Ascetical
Cataphatic
Catholic spirituality
Hellenistic
Mystical theology
Neoplatonic
Henosis :
Practices
Monasticism
Monasticism
New
Silence
Asceticism
Mendicant
Spiritual direction
Meditation
Meditation
Lectio Divina
Invoking of Mystic Saints
Active asceticism
Contemplation
Hesychasm
Jesus Prayer
Quietism
Stages of Christian perfection
Hesychia
Divinization
Catharsis
Theosis
Kenosis
Spiritual dryness
Religious ecstasy
Passive asceticism
Abstinence
Esoteric
Charismatic
Esoteric :
People (by era or century)
Antiquity
Ancient African
Origen
Thomasines
Gregory of Nyssa
Pseudo-Dionysius
Desert Fathers
Paul of Thebes
Anthony the Great
Arsenius the Great
Poemen
Macarius of Egypt
Moses the Black
Syncletica
Athanasius
John Chrysostom
Hilarion
John Cassian
11th · 12th
Bernard of Clairvaux
Guigo II
Hildegard of Bingen
Symeon the New Theologian
13th · 14th
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English
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15th · 16th
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Ignatius of Loyola
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Others
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17th · 18th
French
Margaret Mary Alacoque
Pierre de Bérulle
Jean-Jacques Olier
Louis de Montfort
Charles de Condren
John Eudes
John of St. Samson
Others
Mary of Jesus of Ágreda
Anne Catherine Emmerich
Veronica Giuliani
Francis de Sales
19th
Dina Bélanger
Catherine Labouré
Mélanie Calvat
Maximin Giraud
Bernadette Soubirous
Conchita de Armida
Luisa Piccarreta
Mary of the Divine Heart
Thérèse of Lisieux
Gemma Galgani
20th
Padre Pio
Therese Neumann
Marthe Robin
Alexandrina of Balazar
Faustina Kowalska
Sister Lúcia of Fátima
Edgar Cayce
Simone Weil
Alfred Delp
Thomas Merton
Charles de Foucauld
Edvige Carboni
Elena Aiello
Contemporary papal viewsAspects of meditation (Orationis Formas, 1989)
Reflection on the New Age (2003) :
Literature and media
Lingua ignota
Ordo Virtutum
Scivias
Ascent of Mount Carmel
Dark Night of the Soul
Spiritual Canticle
Way of Perfection
Book of the First Monks
The Interior Castle
Abbey of the Holy Ghost
A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation
From Willow Creek to Sacred Heart
The Glories of Mary
The Imitation of Christ
The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Philokalia
Revelations of Divine Love
The Story of a Soul
Theologia Germanica
Devotio Moderna
Fatima in Lucia's Own Words
Calls from the Message of Fatima
The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima
Sol de Fátima
The Cloud of Unknowing
On the Consolation of Philosophy
The Mirror of Simple Souls
Sister Catherine Treatise
Tractatus de Purgatorio Sancti Patricii
The Vision of Adamnán
Divine Comedy
Inferno
Purgatorio
Paradiso
Fatima :
vte :
Like many Carmelites, Thomas wrote extensively. His treatise On Procuring the Salvation of All Peoples was published in Latin in 1613. His division of prayer into three states: "ordinary meditation, acquired contemplation, and infused contemplation" is still used and is considered one of the distinctive contributions of the Carmelites to Christian theology.