The church's persecution reached its worst from 1576-1580. Imprisoned for one year at Toledo and then released, she was welcomed among sisters whom church authorities promptly excommunicated. Nothing daunted her. Ill-health shortly overtook Teresa. Two years later she slipped away, having told her readers that discerning God's will and desiring to do it above all else was everything.
Patience obtains all things.
As recently as 1969 the Roman Catholic Church pronounced her Doctoris Ecclesiae , a teacher whom Catholics and Protestants alike should hear and heed. Her books have been translated into scores of languages. Apart from Cervantes' Don Quixote , her works are the most widely read today of any Spanish author.