Did you know an Angel physically stabbed St Teresa of Avila in the heart? She received so many mystical gifts from God while on earth. She is one of the few saints who seemed to have achieved a union with God on earth that can’t be explained. Thankfully she was a writer, so she recorded many of such experiences herself. One of such experiences is known as the “transverberation” of the heart. Her love for God was so powerful that her heart became physically pierced by his love. In her autobiography she explains:
“Our Lord was pleased that I should have at times a vision of this kind: I saw an angel close by me, on my left side, in bodily form. This I am not accustomed to see, unless very rarely. Though I have visions of angels frequently, yet I see them only by an intellectual vision, such as I have spoken of before. It was our Lord’s will that in this vision I should see the angel in this wise. He was not large, but small of stature, and most beautiful—his face burning, as if he were one of the highest angels, who seem to be all of fire: they must be those whom we call cherubim. Their names they never tell me; but I see very well that there is in heaven so great a difference between one angel and another, and between these and the others, that I cannot explain it. I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the iron’s point there seemed to be a little fire.
He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart and to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also and to leave me all on fire with a great love of God. The pain was so great, that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it. The soul is satisfied now with nothing less than God. The pain is not bodily, but spiritual; though the body has its share in it, even a large one. It is a caressing of love so sweet which now takes place between the soul and God, that I pray God of His goodness to make him experience it who may think that I am lying. During the days that this lasted, I went about as if beside myself. I wished to see, or speak with, no one, but only to cherish my pain, which was to me a greater bliss than all created things could give me.“
Transverberation is primarily a spiritual experience of ecstasy. But in her case, it was later discovered that her heart was also physically pierced. When her body of exhumed in 1582, her body was incorrupt with no physical evidence of decay. Her heart was removed from her body at some point, and people were stunned to see an actual wound from the Angel’s spear.
Her heart is now on display in the town of Alba de Tormes in Spain, and many say they can still see the puncture of the spear in her heart.
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Did you know an Angel physically stabbed this Saint in the heart?
Did you know an Angel physically stabbed this Saint in the heart?
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