Anne of St Bartholomew was born in Almendral (Avila─Spain) on October 10, 1549, living her adolescence by working in the fields; but even then she was graced by great gifts of the mystical order.
At the age of 21 in 1570, she entered the Discalced Carmelite nuns of the monastery of St. Joseph in Avila, becoming the first lay sister of the Teresian reform. St. Teresa of Avila admitted her to profession on August 15, 1572, and she soon became Teresa’s assistant and travelling companion; by order of St. Teresa she learned almost miraculously to write.
She had the consolation of assisting until the last Saint Teresa, who wanted to die in her arms, on October 4, 1582 in Alba de Tormes. She continued her life in the convents of Avila, Madrid (1591), Ocana (1595), in 1604 she went to France with Anne of Jesus and four other Carmelites, also to begin the reform of the Order there; in France she was elected prioress of Pontoise (1605) and Tours (1608).
In 1611 she returned to Paris, obtained permission to transfer to Flanders to place herself under the direction of the Discalced Carmelites friars, after a one-year break at Mons in Belgium, in 1612 she left to found a monastery in Antwerp, where she then resided for the last fourteen years of her life, surrounded by the esteem of the Archdukes and the people of Antwerp, her prayers freeing them from the secure occupation of heretics.
She died in this great Belgian city on 7th of June 1626.
The beatification ceremony took place on May 6, 1917.
