Santa Teresa

Teresa says one bad companion nearly erased every trace of virtue—and that sweeping a convent floor brought her more joy than the balls and dances she had left behind.

In Alexander Whyte’s appreciation, Teresa of Ávila tells her story in her own searching, urgent words, from a childhood shaped by devout parents to her decision to enter religious life in Spain. She recalls how vanity and harmful company pulled her from her early goodness, and how shame later drove her to give up prayer for a year and a half. Yet the lesson she draws is not despair: even the sinner, she insists, can turn back to a mercy that does not tire of forgiving. What might change if no one were afraid to pray after falling?

With centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world.

Who are we? We're Cairn Press. Our background is in design, publishing, typography, and technology. These skills fuel our mission to create the highest quality Public Domain eBooks available online, at an affordable price. We give them the treatment they deserve; our proprietary process restores books for a better overall user experience in design, readability, and e-reader compatibility.