Teresa was last displayed in 1914, when devotees had a single day to see the saint. This time, the display drew almost 100,000 visitors over two weeks, said Miguel Ángel González, the prior of the Discalced Carmelites of Salamanca.
Saint Teresa of Avila, who died 440 years ago, has hogged the limelight as Catholic worshippers have been flocking to Alba de Tormes to see her remains kept inside an open silver casket. “It gave me a feeling of fulfilment, of joy, and sadness,” said Guiomar Sánchez, who travelled from Madrid with her two daughters on Sunday, the last full day of the exhibit.
Inspired by her mother’s belief in the Carmelite nun, Sánchez praised the mystic’s writings as being ahead of her time. Sánchez said she also came in part to honour her mother. “Seeing her was an inexplicable experience,” Sánchez added.
On Monday morning, the casket of the saint who died in 1582 was resealed and carried through the town streets, with pilgrims following the procession. It is unclear how many years — or decades — will pass before the church once again makes St Teresa’s remains visible to the public.
Teresa was last displayed in 1914, when devotees had a single day to see the saint. This time, the display drew almost 100,000 visitors over two weeks, said Miguel Ángel González, the prior of the Discalced Carmelites of Salamanca.
The casket that holds the saint’s remains is barely 1.3 metres (4 feet) long.
What is visible is a skull dressed in a habit with vestments covering other parts of the body, not all of which is intact. The saint’s heart is kept in another part of the church, officials said. Other body parts — fingers, a hand and a jaw — are kept as relics in churches across Europe.
Teresa is a towering figure from Spain’s Golden Age and 16th-century Counter-Reformation. Her explorations of the inner life and meditations on her relationship with God were controversial, yet they have been held up over the centuries as a “profound treatise on spirituality”, said José Calvo, a professor of theology at the Pontifical University of Salamanca who specialises in Mediaeval history.
Many have venerated her. Former Spanish dictator Gen. Francisco Franco is believed to have kept a relic of the saint’s hand next to his bed.
Last September, the newly elected Pope Leo XIV visited the saint’s birthplace in Avila, an hour’s drive from Alba de Tormes. Teresa’s remains have also spawned memes online about the macabre nature of crowding around her centuries-old skull.
(With inputs from AP)
