Ecstacy of St Teresa
Jan. 23rd, 2025 06:56 pmhad a brief visit with Orvis. he is intending to visit Italy in the spring, and this reminded me of my favorite piece of art that I witnessed there (there were so many, but this one in particular took my breath away the most), Bernini's The Ecstacy of St Teresa.
This sculpture is based on the writings of St Teresa, who detailed mystical religious experiences extensively. Her Transverberation is the inspiration for this sculpture:
Teresa’s legacy could be seen as her reforms, and her life of everyday practicality and intense
spirituality. In The Book of Her Life Teresa recorded many of her supernatural visions,
trances, raptures and locutions and late in life she wrote Interior Castle as an allegorical hand book on Christian spirituality with allusions to her own extraordinary mystical experiences. Her writings are heralded as masterpieces of mystical theology.
However perhaps Teresa’s most enduring legacy is her account of her mystical experience,
called the transverberation. While praying in her cell Teresa received a vision of an angel,
who pierced her heart with a flaming arrow.
Teresa writes,
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 before. It was our Lord’s will that in this
vision I should see the angel in this wise. He was not large, but small of stature, and
most beautiful- his face burning, as if he were one 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 others, that I cannot explain it.
I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the iron’s point there seemed to be a
little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart, and to pierce
my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and to leave
me all on fire with a great love of God. The pain was so great that it made me moan;
and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain that I could not wish
to be rid of it. The soul is satisfied now with nothing less than God. The pain is not
bodily, but spiritual; though the body has its share in it, even a large one. It is a
caressing of love so sweet which now takes place between the soul and God, that I
pray God of His goodness to make him experience it who may think that I am lying.
During the days that this lasted I went about as if beside myself. I wished to see or
speak with no one, but only cherish my pain, which was to me a greater bliss than all
created things could give me. (Zimmerman, 1997, 267)

(Photos cannot capture what it's like to witness this in person.)
This sculpture is based on the writings of St Teresa, who detailed mystical religious experiences extensively. Her Transverberation is the inspiration for this sculpture:
Teresa’s legacy could be seen as her reforms, and her life of everyday practicality and intense
spirituality. In The Book of Her Life Teresa recorded many of her supernatural visions,
trances, raptures and locutions and late in life she wrote Interior Castle as an allegorical hand book on Christian spirituality with allusions to her own extraordinary mystical experiences. Her writings are heralded as masterpieces of mystical theology.
However perhaps Teresa’s most enduring legacy is her account of her mystical experience,
called the transverberation. While praying in her cell Teresa received a vision of an angel,
who pierced her heart with a flaming arrow.
Teresa writes,
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 before. It was our Lord’s will that in this
vision I should see the angel in this wise. He was not large, but small of stature, and
most beautiful- his face burning, as if he were one 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 others, that I cannot explain it.
I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the iron’s point there seemed to be a
little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart, and to pierce
my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and to leave
me all on fire with a great love of God. The pain was so great that it made me moan;
and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain that I could not wish
to be rid of it. The soul is satisfied now with nothing less than God. The pain is not
bodily, but spiritual; though the body has its share in it, even a large one. It is a
caressing of love so sweet which now takes place between the soul and God, that I
pray God of His goodness to make him experience it who may think that I am lying.
During the days that this lasted I went about as if beside myself. I wished to see or
speak with no one, but only cherish my pain, which was to me a greater bliss than all
created things could give me. (Zimmerman, 1997, 267)

(Photos cannot capture what it's like to witness this in person.)