This March break, 11 students and two faculty members are traveling to Spain to explore the life and works of Teresa de Ávila, a renowned Spanish mystic. Please enjoy the blog post below from Lalwani ’26 and Allegra ’27 where they share the group’s day of discovery in Ávila, from exploring the town’s 500-year-old farmers market and historic fortifications to learning about the life of St. Teresa at her former convent, ending the evening with lively discussions and a fun dinner with friends.
Today, we woke up for our first full day in Avila. After a great breakfast in the hotel, we met up with Mercedes, a local woman who helped us explore the town and the surrounding area. First, we walked to the town square for the weekly farmers market, which has been happening for around 500 years. There was lots of produce from local farmers and other snacks like dried fruits and the typical Spanish Jamón, or ham. It was incredible to visit this space where the market has been going in for so long and to think about all the people who’d been in that exact plaza hundreds of years before selling their food.
Once we finished looking around, we all boarded the bus to go to Cuatro Postes, where sinners would have walked to from inside the town of Avila as a “walk of shame” for punishment for their sins. By complete chance, we also happened to run into another student from DA at Cuatro Postes who is currently studying abroad with SYA, and it was so great to see her there.
Next, we got on the bus once again to head to Real Monasterio de Santo Tomás (Royal Monastery of St. Thomas). We walked around the monastery and learned about the architectural style, Mudejar, which describes the style influenced by the Jewish, Muslim, and Christian cultures living together in Spain in the 12 century. Finally, as our last activity before lunch, we walked along the walls that surround the inner town of Avila that were used as fortifications hundreds of years ago in conflict. We then went to lunch, and afterwards had some free time to go back to the hotel, nap, or explore the town.
Later in the evening, we visited a convent and met with Prior David. The convent was built where Teresa previously lived. After visiting the main rooms inside the convent, we took a trip underneath to a museum that carried artifacts related to the life of Teresa. Prior David recounted her life in detail. He explained to us that her family had Jewish roots and were forced to hide them to keep their status. We saw a replica of the room she lived in and many of her diaries and books she grew up reading. It was incredible to stand in the exact place where such an important religious figure had grown up and discovered her faith and commitment to God and the Church, and how her ideals still inspire others to this day. We also had a short Q&A with Prior David to ask about his personal connection to Teresa of Avila and how he found the Carmelites and became the Prior of the convent.
After our visit to the convent, we were surprised with being able to choose where we want to eat for dinner, where almost all of us choose to eat together in an Italian restaurant as a break from the traditional Spanish tapas. We had so much fun and got to know each other even more by playing fun games at the table and asking each other about “moral dilemmas”, as Abdullah would say.
Overall, it was an extremely informative day that let us contemplate the life of Teresa of Avila, and especially what we could take from her story and how we could apply that to our own lives and exploration of values.
