500 Years of Teresa de Ávila Exhibit

Featured Exhibit: 
500 Years of Teresa de Ávila

Special Collections,
Georgetown University

This year marks the 500th anniversary of the birth of Teresa de Ávila, known in the Spanish-speaking world as Teresa de Jesús. One of the most dynamic and innovative of the sixteenth-century mystics, Saint Teresa founded the Discalced Carmelites, an order devoted to contemplation and mental prayer, in 1562. An avid reader and writer, Saint Teresa produced four treatises and hundreds of letters as well as meditations and essays.

Georgetown University Library has built one of the most significant collections of early Discalced Carmelite documents. It includes the first edition of the works of Saint Teresa (1588), edited by Fray Luis de León, as well as the 1606 biography by Diego de Yepes. To mark this momentous anniversary, the Library’s Booth Family Center for Special Collections is hosting an exhibition of materials related to one of Spain’s most beloved saints, 500 Years of Teresa de Ávila.