"... Beside me, on the left hand, appeared an angel in bodily form... He was not tall but short, and very beautiful; and his face was so aflame that he appeared to be one of the highest ranks of angels, who seem to be all on fire... In his hands I saw a great golden spear, and at the iron tip there appeared to be a point of fire. This he plunged into my heart several times ... and left me utterly consumed by the great love of God. The pain was so severe that it made me utter several moans. The sweetness caused by this intense pain is so extreme that one cannot possibly wish it to cease, nor is one's soul then content with anything but God. This is not a physical, but a spiritual pain, though the body has some share in it-even a considerable share ..."

(St Teresa of Avila-The Autobiography)

At the Cornaro chapel of the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome, the words of St Teresa describing her Transverberation seem to take life in a central sculptural group of white marble….

This work known as “The Ecstasy of St. Teresa” is considered by many art-historians as the apogee of Gian Lorenzo Bernini oeuvre: a "total work of art", a masterpiece of the High Roman Baroque, where the incorporation of a variety of elements, from sculpture, painting, to lighting effects are all presented in a theatrical setting to reach one aim: showing the sensual spiritual passion of the saint.

The group is of white marble: St Teresa is swooning back on a cloud, while the smiling angel aims his arrow…. The whole witnesses an extreme skill in rendering the moment real: the clouds, the rough nun’s cloth, the smooth flesh & the feathery wings.... all are carefully differentiated, yet harmonized in the visual result.

Light from a hidden window of yellow glass pours down bronze rays that are meant to be seen as “bursting forth from a painting of heaven in the vault.”

“So sweet are the colloquies of love which pass between the soul and God that if anyone thinks that I am lying I beseech God, in his goodness, to give him the same experience “ 

No doubt that St Teresa experienced a heavy moment where divinity intruded her earthly body… a mystical experience that is outstandingly rare indeed; a grace marking the entrance into the mystical state of spiritual marriage. Both St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross use the term ‘mystical marriage’ to describe highest spiritual union with God.

 Anyhow, for those skeptics who refuse to believe, a physical evidence is left: Preserved and displayed in a spectacular reliquary in the Church’s museum in Alba de Tormes, Spain is Teresa’s incorrupt heart. And visible to the naked eye is a puncture wound in her heart – the mark left by the angel’s fiery dart!!!

It is noteworthy, that after St. Teresa’s death, her body decomposed – but apparently her heart remained incorrupt, a wondrous sign to remind us that God’s ways transcend everything… 

In the year 1726, Pope Benedict XIII, instituted the feast of the so called (Transverberation of the holy mother’s heart)

 So today, let us plead this great saint, on the Fifth Centenary of her birth, to assist us in our prayer-life, so may we be set afire with the Love of God!