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The Interior Castle, or The Mansions

St. Teresa of Ávila · tr. The Benedictines of Stanbrook; revised by Benedict Zimmerman · 1577 (tr. 1921) · 73,214 words

The soul as a castle of crystal with seven mansions, through which prayer leads inward from self-knowledge to the spiritual marriage in the innermost room where God dwells.

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Opening

Introduction (Benedict Zimmerman)

The Mansions

Saint teresa began to write the Interior Castle on June 2, 1577, Trinity Sunday, and completed it on the eve of St. Andrew, November 29, of the same year. But there was a long interruption of five months, so that the actual time spent in the composition of this work was reduced to about four weeks—a fortnight for the first, and another fortnight for the second half of the book. The rapidity with which it was written is easily explained by the fact that the Saint had conceived its plan some time previously. On January 17, 1577, she had written to her brother, Don Lorenzo de Cepeda, at Avila: 'I have asked the bishop—Don Alvaro Mendoza—for my book (the Life) because I shall perhaps complete it by adding those new favours our Lord has lately granted me. With these one may even compose a new work of considerable size, provided God grants me the grace of explaining myself; otherwise the loss will be of small account.' She never asked for permission to write anything, but waited until she received a command from her superiors, which, in this case, came from

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Contents

  1. Introduction (Benedict Zimmerman)
  2. Preface
  3. The First Mansions
  4. The Second Mansions
  5. The Third Mansions
  6. The Fourth Mansions
  7. The Fifth Mansions
  8. The Sixth Mansions (part 1)
  9. The Sixth Mansions (part 2)
  10. The Seventh Mansions
  11. Epilogue

About this edition

Source: Internet Sacred Text Archive

Public domain: First published 1577 (tr. 1921); public domain in the United States.

What’s included: The third edition (1921): Zimmerman’s introduction, St. Teresa’s preface, the seven mansions and the epilogue, with the editor’s note to the sixth mansions. The index is not included.

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