Saint Everywhere by Mary Lea Carroll

Author:Mary Lea Carroll [Carroll, Mary Lea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Prospect Park Books
Published: 2019-02-15T08:00:00+00:00

Relics have always been a thing in the Catholic church. It’s compelling to be so close to a piece of a person who was once so important. I mean, wouldn’t it be fun to try on Marilyn Monroe’s shoes? To sleep in Abraham Lincoln’s bed in the White House? For believers, relics are a way to see that the saints once were real and the stories were true. Of course, the Church has preserved relics of St. Teresa of Avila. There is quite a story about her hand:

During the Spanish Civil War, many churches were assaulted by anticlerical forces. St. Teresa’s left hand, encased in a gem-encrusted silver glove with strategic peepholes to see her fingerbones, was stolen from the Carmelite nuns in Ronda when their convent was looted. When the “national side” took the city of Ronda back, they found piles of priceless valuables from the churches, St. Teresa’s hand among them. General Franco asked officials if he could take it—he did, and he kept it until he died! For forty years it was in the possession of Spain’s authoritarian ruler, accompanying him on his travels, and it sat by his deathbed in 1975. Only then did the Carmelites get it back. Today it rests in a darkened room under lock and key and under their watch. They bring it out for special veneration.

Another thing, not as bizarre, but to me amazing, given my interests, is that legend has it—legend going back to before 1700—that she, Teresa of Avila, was the first to have the Infant Child of Prague! The elaborate statue of the baby Jesus was given to her and her convent by wealthy supporters. She and her nuns enjoyed changing its clothes, the way a mother would change her baby. Until Teresa divested herself of most worldly possessions, she traveled with it. She felt it offered her protection. She’s the one who gave it to Maria Manriquez de Lara as a gift when Maria was departing to become the new queen of Bohemia. Legend says that St. Teresa told Maria to keep the statue where she could see it, pray to Jesus, and her wants and cares would be taken care of. Just like today! This is too strange for me to believe, but the Infant Child of Prague is officially in the care of the Carmelites of Prague, as it has been for some 400 years, when it was given back to them by the royal family of Bohemia.

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