Reconstruction of the face of St. Teresa of Ávila as she would have appeared at approximately age 50. / Credit: Courtesy of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, Iberian Province

Madrid, Spain, Apr 2, 2025 / 12:23 pm (CNA).

A scientific reconstruction of what would have been the face of St. Teresa of Ávila when she was 50 years old was presented recently in Alba de Tormes, the town in Salamanca province in Spain where the Carmelite nun died and where she is buried. 

The reconstruction was based on an anthropomorphic and forensic study, historical evidence, and contemporary descriptions. The work was directed by Professor Ruggero D’Anastasio of D’Annunzio University in Chieti-Pescara, Italy, and carried out by Professor Jennifer Mann, a specialist at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine at Monash University in Australia.

The presentation of the scientifically reconstructed head is the result of the canonical recognition of the tomb of the reformer of the Carmelite order, authorized last August by the Vatican.

Mann explained in a statement released by the Iberian Province of the Discalced Carmelites that, in addition to scientific data, her work was based on other important sources such as “a portrait by Friar Juan de la Miseria and a detailed description of St. Teresa written by Mother Mary of St. Joseph, who lived with the saint.”

To obtain the final result, the skull was first reconstructed with clay, “correctly positioning the jaw,” reconstructing missing teeth, and using “a combination of forensic facial approximation methodologies used in the United States and the United Kingdom.”

The main muscles were molded with soft, oil-based clay, and the soft tissues (eyes, nose, lips) were estimated using formulas based on head measurements and studying the X-rays.

Other formulas allowed for the calculation of the length, width, and angle of the nose as well as a proportional orientation for the placement of the eyes in the sockets of the skull.

“With the consent of the father postulator general of the Discalced Carmelites, I sculpted St. Teresa of Jesus at around the age of 50, reflecting her plump appearance, as described by Mother Mary of St. Joseph,” the specialist explained.

Furthermore, “the veil, headdress, and habit of St. Teresa of Jesus were inspired by specific paintings, following the advice of Father Miguel Ángel González.”

“This sculpture may be the most accurate representation of what St. Teresa of Jesus really looked like during her lifetime,” Mann said.

At the time of the first reformed convent 

St. Teresa turned 50 on March 28, 1565, and the reconstruction work represents her at that age. It was around that time that St. Joseph convent in Ávila was founded, the first of those reformed by the Spanish mystic. She lived there between August 1562 and 1567.

The saint noted in the “Book of My Life,” known as the “Autograph of El Escorial,” that she lived there “the happiest and most restful years of my life, whose peace and quiet my soul often misses sorely.”

In a text by González, Carmelite prior of Alba de Tormes, it is noted that during these times, St. Teresa lived “under high spiritual tension. These were years of ecstatic tension in her mystical life. She was crossing her sixth mansion, with great impetus and a great surge of love, with forebodings of imminent arrival at the port of the other life.”

“Mansions” refers to the stages of spiritual growth detailed in her book “The Interior Castle.” 

During those years, she wrote her well-known “The Way of Perfection” and the constitutions for her new way of understanding of cloistered life, a reform that she quickly extended. On Aug. 13, 1567, she left the monastery of Ávila for Medina del Campo, where she began the second of her 17 foundations throughout Spain, geographically distributed from north to south, from Burgos to Seville.

Mummified remains in an ‘extraordinary state of preservation’

The medical and scientific team that made possible the reconstruction of the saint’s face also submitted a 53-page document to the Order of Discalced Carmelites offering a comprehensive summary of the research conducted by anthropologist Luigi Capasso.

The summary of the report details that all of the saint’s remains examined (distributed between Spain and Italy) have been naturally mummified and are in an “extraordinary state of preservation.”

The report notes that on her face, “the scalp is preserved, with many traces of brown hair, the left auricle, the right eye, which still retains its eyelids, the dark iris, the three-dimensionality of the eyeball, all the soft tissues of the nasal pyramid, including the nostrils and the apex of the nasal cartilages.”

The “relaxed facial muscles still convey the sense of serenity with which the saint shows she faced the moment of her death.”

Anthropometric calculations determine that the probable height of St. Teresa was 156.8 centimeters (a little over 5 feet), and an examination of her bones suggests that she suffered from osteoporosis. 

She also had an anterior curvature of the neck and trunk, which gave her “a forward-leaning appearance, with her head tilted downward, which also made her take a forced and uncomfortable supine position, with her head unable to rest on the pillow when lying down.”

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

Regarding her mouth, of which only three teeth remain, it is deduced that she suffered, among other ailments, from “severe dental caries [advanced tooth decay], severe tooth wear, and obvious tartar deposits.”

On her right arm, an injury can be seen that could be a result of her writing habits.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.