This would have been the face of Santa Teresa de Jesús

This Friday, the scientific reconstruction of what would have been the face of Santa Teresa de Ávila was presented when he was about 50 years old, based on an anthropomorphic and forensic study, historical testimonies and descriptions of the time.

The work has been directed by Professor Ruggero D’Astasio, from the University of Chieti-Pescara (Italy) and carried out by Professor Jennifer Mann, specialist at Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine at Monash University (Australia).

The presentation of the head is the result of the canonical recognition of the sepulcher of the reformer of the order of Carmelo, authorized last August by the Vatican.

Professor Mann explains, in a statement released by the Iberian province of the Barefoot Carmelites, which, in addition to the scientific data, her work has been based on other important sources such as “a portrait of Fray Juan de la Misery and a detailed description of Santa Teresa made by Mother Maria de San José, who lived with the Holy.”

To obtain the final result, the skull was first rebuilt with clay “placing the jaw correctly”, rebuilding lost teeth and using “a combination of forensic facial approach methodologies used in the United States and the United Kingdom.”

The main muscles have been molded with soft clay on oil base and soft tissues (eyes, nose, lips) “have been estimated by formulas based on head measurements and the study of radiographs.”

Other formulas have allowed to calculate the length, wide and angle of the nose and a proportional orientation for the placement of the eyes in the orbits of the skull.

“With the consent of the general postulator father of the barefoot Carmelites, I have sculpted Santa Teresa de Jesús around 50 years, reflecting her plump appearance, as described by Mother Maria de San José,” the specialist details.

In addition, “the veil, touches her and the habit of Santa Teresa de Jesus, are inspired by concrete paintings following the advice of Father Miguel Ángel González.”

“This sculpture can be the most accurate representation of how Santa Teresa de Jesus really was in life,” concludes Professor Mann.

At the time of the First Foundation of the Teresian reform

The reconstruction work represents the Santa around 50 years, who would have fulfilled on March 28, 1565. Just in those years there was the foundation of the Convent of San José de Ávila, the first of those reformed by Spanish mysticism, where it remained between August 1562 and 1567.

Precisely, the saint left written in her Book of Lifeknown as Escorial autographthat there lived “the happiest and most rested years of my life whose calm and still fed up many times my soul.”

In a text by Fr. Miguel Ángel González, Prior Carmelita de Alba de Tormes, it is highlighted that at that time Santa Teresa lives “in high spiritual tension. They are the years of ecstatic tension in his mystical life. Crossing of his sixth dwellings, with great impetus and great flood of love, with Barrunto next arrival to the port of the other life”.

In those years he wrote his acquaintance Road of perfection And the constitutions for his new way of understanding the life of Clausura, a reform that extended without delay. On August 13, 167 he left the monastery of Ávila to Medina del Campo, where on the 15th, the second of his 17 foundations throughout Spain began, geographically distributed from north to south, from Burgos to Seville.

Mummified mortal remains and in “state of extraordinary conservation”

The scientific medical team that has enabled the reconstruction of the saint’s face has delivered to the order of Carmel barefoot a preliminary document of 53 pages in which a informative synthesis of all the investigation prepared by the anthropologist Luigi Capasso is offered.

In the synthesis of the report it is detailed that all the mortal remains of the Holy examined (distributed between Spain and Italy) have been mummified naturally and are found in an “state of extraordinary conservation.”

Thus, it is emphasized that, in its face “the scalp is preserved, with still many traces of hair that are brown, the left atrial pavilion, the right eye that still retains the eyelids, the dark color iris, the three -dimensionality of the eyewolf, all the soft tissues of the nasal pyramid including the nostrils and the vertrite of the nasal cartilags”.

To this is added “a relaxed facial mimic musculature, which still transmits the feeling of serenity with which the Holy sample that faced the moment of her death.”

Anthropometric calculations determine that the probable stature of who was Teresa Cepeda and Ahumada would be 156.8 centimeters and the examination of his bones deduces that he suffered osteoporosis. Also an anterior curvature of the neck and the trunk, which gave him “an inclined appearance, with his head bowed down that he also had to force her to a supine and uncomfortable supine position, with her head that could not support the pillow when she was lying.”

The saint also suffered a bilateral knee osteoarthritis “very serious on the left and slight on the right” and a bone condition below both heels associated with pain, according to the study.

Regarding his mouth, from which only three teeth are preserved, it follows that he suffered, among other ailments, “severe tooth decay, severe dental wear and evident dental tarrus deposits.”

On the other hand, in his right arm an injury can be seen that could be a consequence of his habit of writing.