El Castillo Interior or Las Moradas (trans.:The Interior Castle or The Mansions) was written by Saint Teresa of Ávila in 1577.
After being ordered to write her autobiographical La Vida de la Santa Madre Teresa de Jesús (The Life of S.
Teresa of Jesus), Teresa was hesitant to begin writing again on her views of the perfection found in internal prayer.
In the hands of the Inquisition at that time, her Life was commonly believed to be the weight in the scale of whether to call her experiences heretical or not.
Her humility and claims that, "I am not meant for writing; I have neither the health nor the wits for it," almost prevented Teresa from composing The Interior Castle.
However, according to a letter written by Fray Diego, one of Teresa's former confessors, Teresa was finally convinced to write her book after a she received a vision from God.
Diego wrote that God revealed to Teresa,