A PILGRIMAGE TO AVILA, SPAIN.

I had a blessed experience in Avila this week. I made a pilgrimage to Avila in Spain last day. I spent a day there. In this week I would like to share this experience with you.
Avila is more renowned now for St. Teresa of Avila,the Carmelite reformer who lived there twelve centuries later (c.1515-1582). The city is 1117 meters above sea level, the highest provincial capital in Spain. The medieval city walls of Avila, constructed of brown granite in 1090, and surmounted by a breast work, with eighty-eight towers and nine gateways, are still in excellent repair, but a large part of the city lies beyond their perimeter. Avila is also a seat of a bishop and contains several ecclesiastical buildings of great interest.
Saint Teresa was born into a noble family of Avila on March 28, 1515. Religiously inclined from a young age, Teresa was fascinated by the lives of the saints. On November 2, 1535, she entered the Carmelite Monastery of the Incarnation at Avila. St. Teresa found the Carmelite order to be too worldly, and she worked as a reformer of the order for much of her life. In 1562, she founded a new convent in Avila called St. Joseph's, and moved there in 1563. She wrote a "Constitution" enforcing strict asceticism. For the first five years in her new convent, St. Teresa devoted herself entirely to spiritual contemplation and mysticism. St. Teresa experienced many visions and mystical ecstasies.
In 1567, Teresa was granted permission by the Carmelite general to establish more Carmelite convents. Shortly thereafter, Teresa began making long journeys throughout Spain, reforming old convents and founding new ones. She founded 16 new convents during her 20 years of reform activity. During one of her journeys, Teresa met St. John of the Cross, who became her spiritual advisor. He joined her in her reforming efforts and paralleled her work with Carmelite nuns among Carmelite monks.
She died in Alba, October 4, 1582. Paul V declared her a blessed April 24, 1614, and in 1617 the Spanish parliament proclaimed her the Patroness of Spain. Pope Gregory XV canonized her in 1622. In 1970 she was declared a Doctor of the Church for her writing and teaching on prayer.

For further readings :
http://www.cyberspain.com/ciudades-patrimonio/iavila.htm
http://www.karmel.at/eng/teresa.htm
http://www.carmelite.com/saints/teresa01.shtml

Kollamkunnel Sebastian.