Ávila: St Teresa

Ávila was beautiful. It is famous for being the hometown of St Teresa de la Cruz (Not to be confused with the recently canonized Mother Teresa). St Teresa was a Catholic Mystic from the 16th century. She, along with St Juan de la Cruz (another famous mystic), reformed the cloistered convent of Encarnación within the town of Ávila.

The convent was fun, and it was interesting to see the rooms where they stayed. Cloistered means that the nuns in that particular convent had as little contact with the outside world as possible. They never left the convent, and when they would sell goods, they would be swung out on a rotating table under a screen preventing the purchaser from seeing the vendor.
This room is where St Teresa (as a nun) would have confession to the bishop, St Juan. It is also in this room where Teresa recorded that Jesus Christ appeared to her in the flesh. She had several other visions of Christ, most of which probably happened in this room where she would come to pray in isolation.

We got to see a relic collection including one of her fingers, but unfortunately, pictures were not permitted.