Feast day: August 26
Saint Teresa was born in Catalonia, Spain. She faced many hardships in her youth, finally becoming a teacher at Lerida. Teresa yearned to begin religious life but was not accepted into the convent that she wished to enter. After she was turned down, her spiritual director recommended that she start her own congregation. Taking his advice, Teresa began the Little Sisters of the Poor at Barbastra in 1872. Her congregation soon expanded and flourished.
She died in 1897 and was canonized in 1974. She is fittingly the patron saint of those rejected by religious orders.