The procession advances in sepulchral silence. It is not a cliché: only the singing of the Te Deum, giving thanks to God, interrupts the solemnity of the transfer of the remains of Saint Teresa of Jesus, or Saint Teresa of Avila, from her tomb in Alba de Tormes (Salamanca) to the place set aside to study the relics of the nun. Her eternal rest has been temporarily interrupted so that Vatican technicians can evaluate the state of these remains – most of the body, the heart, the arm and the hand – as a preliminary step to their canonical recognition.
The experts, accompanied by the main representatives of the Carmelite order and a tribunal appointed by the Holy See, will spend three days in Salamanca before taking the results of the examination to Rome and comparing them in order to better understand the saint and improve her conservation. The general postulator of the Discalced Carmelite Order, Father Marco Chiesa, has praised the good condition of the remains: “We have verified that they are in the same condition as when they were last opened in 1914.” The body has remained incorrupt since 1582.
Detail of the nun’s tomb. DIOCESE OF SALAMANCA
The prior of Salamanca and Alba de Tormes, Miguel Ángel González, told EL PAÍS how emotional he was when he saw the remains of the nun: “I felt grateful for the vocation I had received to the Discalced Carmelite order to follow closely in the footsteps of this great woman, saint and doctor of the Church. Serenity, confidence, peace, the same feelings that any person feels at the side of their mother.”
The high-ranking ecclesiastical official highlights that, on the one hand, “the majority of the body” is found and that the arm was located separately “for devotional reasons in 1585” and the heart, in 1588, “for scientific reasons of the time, it was extracted by the doctors of the University of Salamanca after Friar Luis de Léon, the best intellectual of the moment, published his writings of 1588 on the grace of the dart on the mystical experience of the transverberation of the grace of God, seeking a physical wound by taking the Teresian text literally.”
“Very strict legislation is followed”
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The woman was beatified in 1614 and canonized in 1622, and the current canonical recognition seeks to extract the maximum knowledge about the saint Teresa and propose measures for her better maintenance. “Very strict legislation is followed according to a document dictated by the Vatican to proceed with these studies. Among the procedures, the authorization of Pope Francis is required. A tribunal is appointed with a promoter of justice to ensure that the Vatican prescriptions are followed and that the integrity of the body and the relics are not damaged,” says the prior from Salamanca.
The bureaucracy has taken two years since the effort started in Alba de Tormes “because it had not been opened for 110 years and to take advantage of the help of science to continue to learn more about Saint Teresa and to better follow her path and example.”
The process to access the doctor of the Church has had the mysticism attached to the history of the nun, kept in a tomb under 10 keys. Three were kept in Alba de Tormes, another ten were owned in Rome by the Father General, three more were loaned by the Duke of Alba and the last one was given by the king, Felipe VI. Three open the outer gate, three for the marble tomb and the last four remove the protection of the silver urn where the remains are preserved. The last time this was done was in 1914. The date with history has moved the prior of Alba de Tormes and Salamanca, also an expert on Saint Teresa, Miguel Ángel González.
The priest explained that on Wednesday morning, “the community of Discalced Carmelite Mothers, together with the General Postulator of the Order, the members of the ecclesiastical tribunal and a small group of religious, moved the reliquaries with austerity and solemnity to the place designated for study. We did so singing the Te Deum with our hearts full of emotion.”
The group had to work with great care and with the help of two master goldsmiths from Salamanca. First, they had to remove the marble slab that covers the tomb, which was only opened in strict secrecy with the help of scientists and members of the ecclesiastical court. The tomb, made of black marble from Toledo, was donated by Ferdinand VI. [1713-1759] and his wife, Barbara de Braganza, is “magnificently” preserved and is of “excellent” quality.
Several religious, at one point in the process. DIOCESE OF SALAMANCA
The work on the saint’s relics has begun after an initial prayer. The first visual inspection was positive: the body remains “incorrupt”, as it was in 1914. The previous opening took place in 1750. Marco Chiesa explained that the current study aims to accurately trace the final years of the nun. To do so, they have bases such as the examination of the feet, where they discovered “the presence of calcareous spines that make it almost impossible to walk. But she walked. Alba de Tormes came, and then death, but her desire was to continue and carry on, despite her physical defects.”
New technologies will allow for more precise information on the nun’s condition, as only black and white photos from 1914 have been preserved, but Father Chiesa has stated that the doctors “can see Teresa’s face almost clearly” despite the fact that her skin has been mummified and the colour of her skin cannot be clearly seen: “You can see it clearly, especially in the middle of her face.” Once the conclusions arrive in Rome and the experts have analysed them, they hope to find out more details about Teresa and even guidelines for better preserving these remains. The hand, normally kept in Ronda (Málaga), has been transferred to Alba de Tormes to be analysed together with the other elements.
This time, numerous photos and x-rays have been taken to better understand the condition of the nun. The work will continue in Salamanca until this Saturday, August 31, when the reliquary will be cleaned, the remains will be reinstated and the scientific conclusions and evidence will travel to the Holy See. The goldsmiths will intervene again to close and seal the tomb without damaging the ornaments and valuable pieces that compose and adorn it. Finally, and without a date until a future reopening for reasons still unknown, the holy relics, incorruptible and for the moment incorruptible, will be venerated before the peace is restored.
