Tessa Bielecki

Tessa Bielecki is a Christian hermit in the tradition of the desert mothers and fathers. Co-founder of the Spiritual Life Institute, she was a Carmelite monk and Mother Abbess for almost 40 years, establishing radically experimental monastic communities of men and women in Arizona, Colorado, Nova Scotia, and Ireland. Since the 1980s, Bielecki has been actively involved in interspiritual dialogue, being one of the only women to participate in the groundbreaking Buddhist-Christian dialogues at Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado. She is the author of Holy Daring: The Earthy Mysticism of St.Teresa, the Wild Woman of Avila and Teresa of Avila: Ecstasy and Common Sense, co-author of Desert Voices: The Edge Effect and Season of Glad Songs: A Christmas Anthology. Today, she is co-founder of The Desert Foundation (with Father Dave Denny), and, when not traveling and teaching, lives the eremitical life in Crestone, Colorado and Tucson, Arizona. (sandandsky.org)