A team of researchers will spend the next four days studying the body of St. Teresa of Avila, after her tomb was opened this August 28. The doctor of the Church rests in the town where she died, in northwestern Spain, Alba de Tormes.
Teresa died in 1582 and in the following centuries, there was great interest in obtaining relics of her, i.e., a piece of her bone or flesh. This led to some of her remains being dispersed around Europe; however the majority, including her heart and arm, are kept under careful vigilance in the town of her death, on the beautiful Tormes River.
In fact, to open the urn containing her body, 10 separate keys are needed; three of these are habitually kept in Rome.
