Hundreds of Catholic worshippers flocked to the small Spanish town of Alba de Tormes this month to witness a remarkable sight: the remains of Saint Teresa of Ávila, lying in an open silver coffin more than four centuries after her death.
The saint, mystic, and 16th-century religious reformer, drew silent, wonderstruck crowds who lined up to pay their respects.
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 are kept as relics — fingers, a hand and a jaw — in churches across Europe.
Teresa's remains have also spawned reaction online about the macabre nature of crowding around her centuries-old skull.
In Alba de Tormes, church officials and experts downplayed such reactions, saying the display was nothing out of the ordinary for how Catholics have revered their saints for centuries.
“It was just something people always did when they thought somebody might be a saint,” said Cathleen Medwick, who wrote the book “Teresa of Avila, The Progress of a Soul.”
“And the fact that her body hadn’t decayed very much was also considered a sign of her sanctity," Medwick added.
“It gave me a feeling of fulfillment, of joy, and of sadness,” said Guiomar Sánchez, who traveled from Madrid with her two daughters on Sunday, the last full day of the exhibit.
A map of Alba de Tormes:
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 honor her mother.
“Seeing her was an inexplicable experience,” Sánchez added.
On Monday morning, the coffin 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 coffin that holds the saint's remains is barely 1.3 meters (4 feet) long.
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 specializes in Medieval history.
Many have worshipped 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.
Some worshippers this month were visibly moved. On Sunday, a group of nuns from India wiped away tears as they stood by the side of the coffin and looked at the saint's remains behind a glass case.
Gregoria Martín López, 75, climbed to an elevated part of the church behind the altar, hoping to get a better view from above of the diminutive saint's skull.
“The saint for me is a thing of great strength. If they close her, I can say that I saw her,” Martín said and with tears in her eyes, blew a kiss down to Teresa's relic as organ music filled the space.
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