Where did Teresa of Ávila grow up and live?

📍Avila, Castile and Leon, Spain

1515 – 1582

“I was born Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada on the 28th of March 1515 in Ávila, a walled city on the Castilian plateau, the daughter of a converso merchant and a devout mother who died when I was twelve. I entered the Carmelite convent in Ávila at twenty, was ill for years, and experienced a spiritual transformation at thirty-nine. I founded the first reformed Carmelite convent in Ávila in 1562 against fierce opposition and spent the next twenty years founding sixteen more across Spain. The Interior Castle, The Way of Perfection, and my autobiography are among the most important mystical texts in Christianity. I collaborated with John of the Cross on the Carmelite reform. I died in 1582 and was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1970 — the first woman to receive that title.”

👍 LovedThe Ávila of my childhood — the walled city's austere Castilian beauty. The reformed Carmelite community as the container for the mystical life. John of the Cross's friendship and collaboration.

👎 DislikedThe opposition to the reform from within the Carmelite order. The Inquisition's scrutiny of a woman's mystical writings. The exhausting travel of founding sixteen convents.

Map showing where Teresa of Ávila lived — Avila, Castile and Leon, Spain

🗺️ Approximate location today

Street view of Teresa of Ávila's home at Avila, Castile and Leon, Spain

📍 Street view today

Sources: Williams, R. Teresa of Avila (1991), Geoffrey Chapman; Teresa of Ávila. The Interior Castle (1577, translated Kieran Kavanaugh 1979)