Anales del Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas ISSN: 0185-1276
[email protected] Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas México C. Wilson, Christhoper Saint Teresa of Ávilas Martyrdom: Images of Her Transverberation in Mexican Colonial Painting Anales del Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, vol. XXI, núm. 75, primavera, 1999, pp. 211-233 Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas Distrito Federal, México Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=36907411 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative Christopher C. Wilson the george washington university Saint Teresa of Ávila’s Martyrdom: Images of Her Transverberation in Mexican Colonial Painting N HER AUTOBIOGRAPHY, known as the Book of Her Life, the extraordinary Spanish nun St. Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582) describes her most re-nowned mystical experience, the Transverberation, or piercing of the heart. Of I 1560 this ecstatic vision, which occurred around the year , she writes: I saw close to me toward my left side an angel in bodily form […] in his hands [was] a large golden dart and at the end of the iron tip there appeared to be a lit- tle fire. It seemed to me this angel plunged the dart several times into my heart and that it reached deep within me. When he drew it out, I thought he was car- rying off with him the deepest part of me; and he left me all on fire with great love of God.