Researchers recently reopened the tomb of a centuries-old saint and found themselves “stunned” to discover that the remains were still recognizable.
As reported in the New York Post, a group of Discalced Carmelites, a mendicant order of Catholicism, reopened the tomb of St. Teresa of Avila, a co-founder of their order who died in 1582 and was canonized in 1622.
The members of the Diocese of Avila in Spain reopened the tomb “as part of an intricate process to study the relics of St. Teresa’s heart, hand and arm.” The last time it had been opened was 1914, during which the tomb was photographed.
The nuns and monks, during this recent reopening, took great pains to ensure the tomb was undamaged in the process. “The process to reach the silver urn that Saint Teresa’s body has is very complex,” the diocese said in a translated press release. “First, the marble slab in the tomb had to be removed. Later, in the room set up for the studies to which the Saint’s major relics will be subjected—and only with the presence of the scientific medical team and the members of the ecclesiastical court—has the silver tomb been opened.”
When the tomb itself was finally uncovered, the visible parts of St. Teresa’s remains, her face and foot, were compared to those 1914 photographs. In the press release, Fr. Marco Chiesa notes that those parts “are the same as those they were in 1914.”
“There is no color, there is no skin color because the skin is mummified,“ Chiesa continues, “but it is seen, especially in the middle of the face.” The release noted that “expert doctors see Teresa’s face almost clearly.”
Saint Teresa of Avila, also known as Saint Teresa of Jesus, was born Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda Dávila y Ahumada in 1515. A pivotal figure in the period known as the Contrareformatio, or Counter-Reformation, St. Teresa co-founded the Discalced Carmelites with Saint John of the Cross in 1562. Known today through her religious writings like The Interior Castle, which posited that there were “seven mansions” within the “castle of the soul,” St. Teresa holds special significance within the movement of Catholic mysticism.
Her life, as chronicled in her autobiography La Vida de la Santa Madre Teresa de Jesús, still fascinates many Catholics, particularly within the Discalced Carmelite order, and this re-examination of her relics could shed greater light on her later years. “Sometimes,” Chiesa told the New York Post,“ looking at a body, you discover more than the person had [spoken about].
“We know that the last few years were difficult for her to walk,” Fr. Chiesa remarked in the press release, “Analyzing the foot [relic] in Rome, we saw the presence of calcareous spines that make walking almost impossible.”
The Post notes that the examination of the corpse “is still in the early stages,” but that Chiesa hopes the endeavor “will teach researchers how to better preserve relics.”
Sources: Popular Mechanics & New York Post
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