Ana of Jesus

Ana de Jesús, O.C.D., translated into English as Ann of Jesus, also known as Ann Lobera (25 November 1545 – 4 March 1621), was a Spanish Discalced Carmelite nun and writer. She was a close companion of St. Teresa of Avila, foundress of the Carmelite reform and served to establish new monasteries of the Order throughout Europe. Known as a mystic and for her writings on prayer, she has been declared Venerable by the Catholic Church.

Born Ana de Lobera y Torres in Medina del Campo in the Province of Valladolid, her parents were Diego de Lobera and Francisca Torres, who also had a son called Cristóbal, who became a Jesuit. As a small child she was assumed to be deaf and dumb. However, she started to talk at the age of seven. Her father died some months after her birth, and her mother died too when Ana was nine years old, so she was left an orphan and went to live with her father's relatives.

Having made a vow of virginity, Lobera entered the Monastery of St. Joseph in Ávila, founded by St. Teresa of Ávila, in 1570. In 1571, while still a novice, she was sent to a new foundation in Salamanca, where she professed religious vows on 22 October, and she remained there until 1575. That year she accompanied Teresa for the foundation of the Monastery of Beas, Spain, of which she became the first prioress.

After being in a new monastery in Granada, Ana made a foundation at Madrid (1586), where she also served as a prioress. It was there that she became involved in a dispute which was to have long-term repercussions. The friar in charge of the monastery, Nicholas of Gesu Maria Doria, made changes requiring severe rigidity in the Constitutions of the nuns, drawn up by St. Teresa with the assistance of Jerome Gratian, and approved by a chapter in 1581. His intentions was, that by concentrating all authority in the hands of a committee of external officials, he could thereby guard the nuns against any relaxation of their life. Ann of Jesus, determined to preserve intact St. Teresa's work, with Doria's knowledge appealed to the Holy See for papal confirmation of their Constitutions. This was granted by Pope Sixtus V in a papal brief dated 5 June 1590. Then, however, Doria complained to King Philip II of Spain that the nuns had gone over the head of their superiors, as a result of which the king twice forbade the meeting of a monastery chapter to receive the papal brief, and the nuns, and their advisers and supporters, Friars Luis de León, O.E.S.A, and Domingo Bañez, O.P., fell into disgrace. Furthermore, for over a year no friar was allowed to hear the nuns' confessions. When the king finally heard the story from the nuns' point of view, he ordered that the internal council of the monastery resume its authority, and he further petitioned the Holy See for an approval of the Constitutions. This was granted by Pope Gregory XIV on 25 April 1591, revoking the decrees of his predecessors.

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