Amongst the peculiarities lifted up for commemoration in the Sanctorale, the memorial of the Transverberation of St. Teresa of Avila caught my attention this year. August 26, I learned, is celebrated in the Order of Discalced Carmelites in remembrance of the piercing of Saint Teresa\u2019s heart. In the Spanish cities of Alba and Salamanca (both of importance in Teresa\u2019s life), the same event is commemorated on August 27. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If all you know about Teresa\u2019s experience of having her heart pierced comes from Bernini\u2019s famous statue The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa<\/em>, you are missing out. Here is Teresa\u2019s own description of the event, which she narrates in some detail in the Book of Her Life:<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s will that in this vision I should see the angel in this wise. He was not large, but small of stature, and most beautiful\u2014his 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.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n