ChatGPT:

There is no reliable historical evidence that Teresa of Ávila had a sexual life in the ordinary sense of the term. She was a Carmelite nun who took vows of chastity and spent most of her adult life in religious communities.

The question often arises because her writings describe intense mystical experiences that can sound erotic to modern readers. In her autobiography, she recounts a vision in which an angel pierced her heart with a fiery spear, producing both great pain and spiritual ecstasy. This experience inspired the famous sculpture The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

Some modern scholars, psychologists, and literary critics have interpreted these descriptions through the lens of sexuality, suggesting that mystical ecstasy and bodily sensation may overlap in human experience. Others argue that imposing modern sexual categories on a 16th-century mystic can be misleading, because Teresa herself consistently described the experience as a union with God rather than a physical or sexual event.

What can be said with confidence is:

• There is no documented evidence of sexual relationships or sexual activity in her life.
• Her writings contain vivid descriptions of spiritual ecstasy that use imagery of love, longing, and union.
• Those descriptions have generated centuries of debate about the relationship between mysticism, the body, and sexuality.

If you’re interested, I can also explain how Teresa’s mystical experiences have been interpreted by figures such as Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and modern historians of religion.