Incorrupt, torn and cauterized heart of Saint Teresa of Avila confirms that an angel gave her an arrow of fire from divine love
The Transverberation of the Heart
Saint Teresa of Avila was the first woman Doctor of the Catholic Church (proclaimed by Pope Paul VI in 1970), writing books that related her mystical experiences that so marked her heart: the “Way of Perfection”, the “Book of Life ” and “Dwellings and Foundations”. She was also responsible for the foundation of 32 monasteries (female and male), as well as for a major reform in the Order of Discalced Carmelites. Later, he left the legacy of continuing the opening of even more monasteries to Saint John of the Cross.
One of the greatest miracles of his life was the transverberation of his heart, in 1571. Transverberation is a mystical experience in the soul and that can generate physical reflections in the person's body (but not necessarily). When this divine event takes place, the soul is taken over by the love of God, increasing its communion with Him, its charity and consequently its holiness. Some saints had this experience offered by God himself: São Padre Pio, São Francisco de Assis, Santa Teresinha do Menino Jesus and Santa Teresa D'Ávila herself, which we will report below.
The phenomenon occurred when Santa Teresa entered one of her mystical ecstasies and began to see an angel on her left, claiming to resemble a Cherubim, writing in her autobiography what happened next:
"I saw in his hands a long oiro (gold) dart and, at the end of the iron point, it seemed to me that there was a little fire. It seemed to pierce my heart a few times and that it reached my entrails . it (...) left me all ablaze with the great love of God . (take away) , not even the soul is content with less than with God. It is not bodily pain, but spiritual, although the body is not without its share, and even much. (The Book of Life, Chap. 29, 13).
Saint John of the Cross clearly explains what happens to the souls of the saints during the mystical phenomenon of transverberation:
"A seraph invests over her with an arrow or a dart all incandescent in the fire of love, transverberating this soul that is already inflamed like an ember, or, better to say, like a living flame, and cauterizes her in a sublime way . is thus cauterized, and the soul pierced by that arrow, the inner flame impetuously breaks out and rises vehemently on high, such as happens in a blazing furnace or a bonfire when the fire is stirred and stoked, and bursts into flame . soul, then, when it is wounded by that fiery dart, feels the wound with great delight. Besides being all revolved with great smoothness, in that fiery and impetuous motion that the seraph causes in it, provoking in it great fervor and loving faintness " (Works of Saint John of the Cross, Volume II, p.261).
Heart incorrupt, torn and cauterized by the mystical arrow
The saint dies in 1582 and nine months later her body is exhumed . incorrupt , that is, without going into a state of decomposition. At the request of the church, they even removed the heart from her body to expose it, when they came across the true fact reported by the saint in her book: there was a typical tear in it from an arrow, already healed and with signs of cauterization ( due to the tip of the arrow with fire)!!! The heart was then placed in a crystal vase for display and can still be seen today in the Carmelite Monastery of Alba de Tormes, located in Spain.
To this day, its color remains the same as that of a living heart, as well as its lesions evolve the same as that of a living person's heart. Crusts from the wounds fall off over time and accumulate at the bottom of the vessel, which can also be seen. Additionally, since the 19th century, several thorns have appeared at its base that have been growing.
References: O Livro da Vida: autobiografia de Santa Teresa D'Ávila (1515 a 1582), Obras de São João da Cruz (Volume II), Arquidiocese de Aracaju, Our Lady of Mercy, Boston Carmel, Christo Nihil Præponere