While visiting the Shrine of St. Theresa of Avila in the town of...well...Avila, I visited the small museum in the undercroft of the Carmelite chapel, and came across something very intriguing. It seems like I came across, behind a glass enclosure, a copy of what I recognized as The Lives of the Desert Fathers. This particular book was the possession of St. Theresa, and there are copious notes on the margins which she wrote.
This sparked a question in my mind: To what degree was this book influential in her reform of the Carmelite Order? What are the patristic sources of such reform?
I hope the docens of the monastic museum will allow me the privilege of looking through it.
