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Teresa of Avila: The Interior Castle

1 March 2026


Teresa of Avila: The Interior Castle. The Classics of Western Spirituality. Translators: Kiernan Kavanaugh and Otillo Rodriguez. Paulist Press International. 1979. ISBN: 9780809122547.

Teresa of Ávila's The Interior Castle is a 16th-century mystical treatise describing the soul's journey to union with God using the image of a many-roomed crystal castle. Teresa asks us to imagine the soul as a luminous crystal or diamond castle with many mansions or dwelling places, with God dwelling in the innermost centre. The journey of the spiritual life is the movement from the outer rooms into the deepest interior mansion where intimate spiritual marriage with God takes place. She distinguishes seven main mansions, each indicating subtle gradations of experience and virtue.

Kieran Kavanaugh, OCD, and Otillo Rodriguez, OCD, are Discalced Carmelite scholars renowned for their acclaimed English translation of St. Teresa of Ávila's The Interior Castle. Their 1979 Paulist Press edition is widely praised for its accessibility and fidelity to Teresa's 16th-century Spanish mysticism.

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