Via Heritage Travel  ·  July 13–23, 2027

Become Friends
with St. Teresa of Ávila
and St. John of the Cross.

Travel to the places they loved, pray where they prayed, and discover in their company the One who has been pursuing you all along.

Madrid · Ávila · Salamanca · Granada · Sevilla Small Group  ·  11 Days  ·  July 2027
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Belong.Hospitality · Companionship · Being known by name
Behold.Beauty · Presence · Wonder
Become.Formation · Friendship with the saints · Deeper union with God
Cloister arches at a Spanish monastery
An Invitation to Deeper Friendship

This is not simply a journey through Spain.

It is an invitation to friendship — with two of the Church's most extraordinary saints, with fellow pilgrims traveling the same road, and with the God who has been quietly pursuing you all along.

More than learning facts about Teresa and John, you will come to know them. You'll trace the story of their lives through the cities and landscapes that shaped their witness. You'll listen to their hearts through their own poetic words. You'll discover the historical world they inhabited — and the courage with which they reformed the Carmelite Order and renewed the life of the Church.

In Ávila, the city Teresa called home, you'll have the opportunity to be enrolled in the Brown Scapular — entrusting yourself anew to Our Lady's maternal care.

Guided by Dr. Jana Kerns — a Professor Emerita specializing in Hispanic poetry, female expression, and literary translation who has led study-abroad programs to Spain more than a dozen times — alongside Dr. Ezekiel Stear and Fr. Ian Gaston, you'll experience these remarkable saints with both mind and heart. Not as distant figures to admire, but as companions for the road that lies ahead.

St. Teresa believed the interior life was not a reward for when everything else was finished. It was the point all along. This pilgrimage is her invitation, extended across five centuries.

What Makes This Pilgrimage Singular

Poetry. History. Prayer. Place. All at once.

Most pilgrimages offer you one of these things. Into the Heart of Carmelite Spain offers all four — woven together, every day, in the exact locations where Teresa and John lived and wrote.

This is what sets this pilgrimage apart.

Dr. Jana Kerns has spent her scholarly life studying the poetry of the Spanish-speaking world — with a particular attention to literary translation, and the way a poem opens what prose cannot reach. She has led study-abroad programs to Spain more than a dozen times, including at the Universidad de Salamanca, and has presented her work at the Oxford Round Table. When Dr. Kerns reads Teresa's words aloud in the city where Teresa was born, something happens that no lecture hall can replicate. The poem becomes a place. The place becomes a prayer.

Alongside Dr. Kerns, Dr. Ezekiel Stear brings the historical context of the Carmelite reform into focus — opening the political, religious, and cultural world these saints inhabited so that their courage becomes vivid and particular. Fr. Ian Gaston holds the whole journey in prayer, celebrating Daily Mass and offering spiritual direction. Worship anchors our journey, and education enriches it.

None of these three disciplines stands alone. They interpret each other. The poem illuminates the place. The history deepens the prayer. The prayer makes the history personal. You move through Spain not as a tourist gathering impressions, but as a pilgrim being formed — by scholars who have devoted their lives to these texts, in the very places those texts came from.

This rare integration distinguishes this pilgrimage. This is a unique opportunity to understand how faith, poetry, and the challenges of history transformed the Carmelite order, and their work in the world.

An invitation to deeper friendship —
with the saints, and with God.

This pilgrimage is limited to a small group. Join the interest list to receive the full itinerary and pricing before registration opens.

What You Will Receive

Three gifts this pilgrimage carries home with you.

I

Come to know Teresa and John as companions, not as figures.

There is a difference between knowing about a saint and knowing a saint. This pilgrimage is designed to close that distance.

You will visit Ávila, the city Teresa called home — entering the monasteries she founded, standing in the spaces where she prayed, wrote, and debated with God. You will travel to Segovia and Granada, where John of the Cross composed some of the most celebrated poetry in any language. In each place, Dr. Kerns will bring their words to life through readings aloud in the very places where the saints wrote their famous texts.

In Ávila, you will have the opportunity to enroll in the Brown Scapular, entrusting yourself anew to Our Lady's maternal care — this moment can become the quiet center of our entire journey.

You will come home with more than information about two great saints. You will come home with two new friends to journey with you.

You will return home with

Companions in prayer — Teresa and John not as subjects of study, but as living presences on the road ahead.

Gilded baroque altarpiece in a Spanish church
II

Discover the saints with mind and heart.

The Carmelite tradition has always insisted that love and knowledge belong together — that the heart cannot fully receive what the mind has not grasped. This pilgrimage takes that conviction seriously.

Dr. Jana Kerns — Professor Emerita, specialist in Hispanic poetry, and veteran of more than a dozen study-abroad programs in Spain, brings Teresa and John alive through their own words. She has spent years studying ways in which poetry opens what prose cannot reach. She has presented her work at the Oxford Round Table, and multiple academic conferences. In her hands, Interior Castle becomes a living map. The Dark Night of the Soul becomes a companion text for your own interior journey. The Spiritual Canticle becomes a love song you recognize.

Dr. Ezekiel Stear provides the historical and theological context that makes the saints' courage present to us today. He presents the sixteenth-century world of reform, resistance, and renewal they inhabited.

Fr. Ian Gaston holds the whole journey in prayer, offering Daily Mass and spiritual direction so that every day is anchored in worship.

You will return home with

faith and understanding, a personal connection with tradition, and beauty to enrich your prayer life.

Pilgrims in deep conversation over an elegant candlelit dinner
III

Travel as a pilgrim, not a planner.

A pilgrimage requires a certain quality of attention — an interior openness that is difficult to maintain when you are also managing logistics. We have designed this journey so that your attention is free for what matters.

Beautiful accommodations, carefully chosen regional cuisine, unhurried pacing, small group connection, and every practical detail handled — these are not luxuries added on top of the pilgrimage. They are the conditions that make the pilgrimage possible. When you are well-rested, well-fed, and free from the weight of planning, you are available. To the beauty. To the saints. To God.

Our care for the particulars helps you return home with genuine peace, the peace of divine intimacy.

Pilgrims sharing an evening meal together at a long candlelit table
Your Guides

You will not walk alone.

A priest, a poetry and literature scholar, and a historian — each devoted to their part of the journey, so that every dimension of your experience is held with care.

Fr. Ian Gaston
Spiritual Director · Celebrant
Fr. Ian Gaston
Fr. Ian Gaston grew up in Orange County, California, and attended Catholic schools through high school. After two years of college on the East Coast, he entered Mount Angel Seminary in Oregon in 2016 to begin priestly formation. Following completion of his philosophical and theological studies, he was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Orange in 2023. Father Ian served at St. Irenaeus Catholic Church in Cypress for one year before his current assignment as parochial vicar at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove. He celebrates Daily Mass, offers spiritual direction, and brings a pastoral, prayerful presence to every pilgrimage. Weekly Sunday homilies from Fr. Ian are available at Fr. Ian's Homilies.
Dr. Ezekiel Stear
Pilgrimage Co-Leader · Historian
Ezekiel Stear, PhD
Dr. Stear has taught Spanish and Spanish literature for over 20 years. As a scholar of the colonial period, he is an expert in the history and events important during the lives of St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross. He has led university students on visits to Spain, Mexico, Perú, and Costa Rica, and has guided multiple pilgrimages in central Mexico and Peru. For Via Heritage in Carmelite Spain, Ezekiel will provide historical talks and language support.
Dr. Jana Kerns
Pilgrimage Co-Leader · Poetry & Literature Scholar
Jana Kerns, PhD
Professor Emerita with a PhD in Romance Languages from UNC Chapel Hill. Dr. Kerns has devoted her scholarly life to Hispanic poetry, female expression, and literary translation — and has led study-abroad programs to Spain more than a dozen times, including at the Universidad de Salamanca. She has presented at Oxford, published in leading journals, and brings to this pilgrimage a rare gift: the ability to open a poem until it becomes a prayer.
The Road Ahead

Into the Heart of Spain.

Eleven days through the cities, monasteries, and landscapes that shaped the Carmelite reform — and that will shape you.

Madrid
Gateway and gathering — where your community of pilgrims forms, and the road begins.
Ávila
The city of St. Teresa — her birthplace, her monasteries, her walls. The heart of this pilgrimage.
Segovia
Where John of the Cross was prior, where he wrote poetry, and where he prayed in the monastery that still bears his mark.
Salamanca
One of Europe's great university cities — where scholarship and faith have conversed across centuries.
Granada
Where John of the Cross wrote his greatest mystical poetry, and where the Carmelite tradition meets the beauty of Andalusia.
Sevilla
Baroque splendor, sacred art, and the warmth of Andalusian hospitality at its most luminous.
Córdoba
Ancient and layered — a city where civilizations have prayed for two millennia, and where beauty still rises from stone.
Toledo
The imperial city — where El Greco painted his saints and where Catholic Spain's medieval soul still breathes.
Duruelo · Alba de Tormes · Malagón · Baeza · Úbeda
The hidden places — the small towns where the Carmelite reform took root and where pilgrims find what tourists cannot.
Optional Extension

Extend your journey with four additional days in Barcelona, July 23–27 — Gaudí's cathedrals, the old quarter, and the Mediterranean light. Details available upon request.

Common Questions

Before you ask —

Who is this pilgrimage for?+
This pilgrimage is for thoughtful Catholics who love history, theology, sacred art, and meaningful travel. You don't need prior knowledge of Carmelite spirituality. You need only curiosity, a willingness to pray, and a desire to go deeper than a typical tour.
How large is the group?+
This is a small, boutique pilgrimage. Group size is intentionally limited so that every pilgrim is known by name, conversation is possible, and pacing remains unhurried. You will not be one of fifty people on a bus.
What does "everything handled" mean, exactly?+
It means your accommodations, ground transportation, daily Mass, expert lectures, meals, site access, and logistical details are all arranged and managed by our team. You arrive. You explore. You pray. You listen. You rest.
Do I need to be physically fit for this pilgrimage?+
Being able to walk for one mile on flat ground and being able to go up and down stairs are necessary for this pilgrimage. At the same time, this is not a long-distance walking pilgrimage like the Camino de Santiago. You will travel between cities and sites by comfortable coach. At each location, you can expect activities like entering monasteries, exploring churches, or wandering through historic streets. There is nothing more strenuous than that. If you can comfortably spend a few hours on your feet at a museum or church, you will be well-suited for this pilgrimage. We will share full physical expectations in the itinerary, and our team is attentive to the needs and comfort of every pilgrim.
What is the cost, and what does it include?+
This is a boutique, expert-led pilgrimage — a priest and two PhD scholars, in a small group, across eleven days in Spain. It is priced accordingly, and it is worth it. Full pricing, a detailed itinerary, and a complete breakdown of inclusions will be shared with everyone on the interest list before registration opens publicly. Join below to receive that information first.
What is the spiritual structure of each day?+
Each day includes Daily Mass with Fr. Ian Gaston, a formation session with our scholars, and time for personal prayer, silence, and exploration. The pacing alternates between communal depth and personal freedom. You will never feel rushed, and you will never be left without nourishment.
I am traveling alone. Is that common?+
Many pilgrims travel alone and find that the intimacy of a small group means they arrive as strangers and leave as friends. This is part of what this pilgrimage is for. You will not be lonely on this road.
How do I request the full itinerary?+
Join the interest list below with your email address. We will send you the full day-by-day itinerary, a detailed packing list, pricing information, and an invitation to a private Q&A call with our pilgrimage leaders.
Join the Interest List

Enter the places they loved.
Pray where they prayed.

Join the interest list to receive the full itinerary, pricing, and priority access before registration opens. Every detail of the journey will be cared for — so your only task is to show up, open, and ready to receive. This pilgrimage is limited to a small group. We expect to fill it from this list.

    We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at any time.
    July 13–23, 2027

    The God who has been
    pursuing you all along.

    Teresa of Ávila spent years in what she called the "first rooms" of the Interior Castle — going through the motions of a faithful life while remaining, somehow, at a distance from the God she loved.

    Then something shifted. She began to pray not as an obligation but as a conversation. This pilgrimage is an invitation into that same conversion — not sudden or dramatic, but quiet, cumulative, and real. Eleven days in the company of two great saints and a community of fellow pilgrims will help us see that God has pursued you all along.

    This pilgrimage is limited to a small group. We expect to fill it from the interest list.

    "The feeling remains
    that God is on the journey too."
    — St. Teresa of Ávila