The Sexual Personae of Augustine & Teresa

2 archetypal modes of sublimation

I often write about the themes of virginity/vowed celibacy and thought it would be helpful to delve a little more deeply into what that looked like for two particularly “passionate” saints: Teresa of Avila and Augustine of Hippo. In the spirit of Camille Paglia’s magnum opus Sexual Personae, I’ll explain how they embody two different archetypes of sexual sublimation [a word you can interchange with transformation or offering].

Both Teresa and Augustine were hot-blooded Mediterraneans from well-to-do families and with lively temperaments. It was often the case that their vivacity manifested in intense erotic longing. They also were disposed to thoroughly (some might say neurotically so) examining their thoughts and experiences, which is part of what enabled them to produce such intimate accounts of their spiritual lives (in Teresa’s Vitae and Augustine’s Confessions).

Yet the two figures diverge in two important ways.