During the day this Thursday, they continued in the Basilica of the Annunciation in Alba de Tormes the work carried out by a scientific and medical team from Italy to study the body of Saint Teresa and three of her best-known relics. Thus, from the analysis of the heart and the arm, venerated in the municipality of Salamanca, and the hand that keeps the Discalced Carmelites of Ronda (Malaga) It was concluded that “the state of conservation is exceptional”
This is what he emphasized. Marco ChiesaPostulator General of the Barefoot Carmelite Order, who specified that “the team of scientists, led by Professor Luigi Capasso, is working intensively and has been able to verify the good condition of the three relics.” After this verification, the heart, arm and hand of Saint Teresa will return to their corresponding reliquaries without it being necessary to carry out any conservation measures on them, he added.
“It was a great joy to receive this news in such a resounding way from the team of scientists and the first thing we did was to communicate this result to the Discalced Carmelite Mothers of Alba de Tormes and Ronda,” said Miguel Ángel González, prior of the Carmelites of the city of Salamanca.
For this work, the team of scientists had the prior help of Ricardo Plaza, a barefoot Carmelite and restorer, and the Salamanca goldsmiths Ignacio Manzano Martín and Constantino Martín Jaén, who played an important role in the extraction of the three relics.
For their part, the barefoot Carmelite mothers proceeded to clean the reliquaries of the arms and the heart and the goldsmiths took care of the reliquary of the hands. However, the first two will have to be restored, work that will be carried out throughout the year 2025.
During this Thursday, the Postulator General, the medical team and the members of the ecclesiastical tribunal, in addition to the elder sister of the community, made the oath of loyalty before the Gospels as prescribed by the Vatican instruction for the study and conservation of the tombs and relics of the saints.
The eldest sister, María Victoria de la Sagrada Familia, 83 years old, resident of the Monastery of the Annunciation, took an oath that becomes one more piece of evidence to add to the investigations that are taking place these days in Alba de Tormes: “I have been in this monastery for 61 years and I have always known that we venerate the tomb of our Holy Mother Teresa of Jesus here in our convent church and that it was last opened in 1914, after meeting people who at that time there were witnesses of sight”.
