Toledo

Toledo is a city and municipality located in central Spain; it is the capital of the province of Toledo in the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha. Toledo is a historic city in Castilla La Mancha, sitting majestically above the Tagus River and denoted a UNESCO heritage site in 1986.

The history of Toledo dates back to Roman occupation (Toletum) circa 192BCE. The ruins of the Roman circus are still visible just outside the walls of the city.

Toledo was considered the holiest city in Spain in the Catholic faith.

Our holy father St. John of the Cross entered a Carmelite Monastery at the age of 21 in Toledo Spain. But after the anti-Reformist General Chapter of the Calced Carmelites in 1572 he was abducted and imprisoned at a Carmelite friary at Toledo. He was imprisoned in a dungeon here which was seven meters long and one meter sixty wide.

Confined in a dark cell in this monastery of the Toledo Carmelites, St John used to bleed from the wounds inflicted by their floggings, he was also starved. He was incarcerated  for nine months.

After six months in the Toledo Carmelite prison, a new warden brought St. John the writing material he requested, and he wrote down some of his earliest poetry. He knew, with a grim certainty, that he was going to die if he remained in his prison at Toledo much longer.

He escaped from the prison in August 1578.