St Teresa of Avila's severed hand

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2024

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After winning the Spanish Civil War in 1939, Franco's dictatorship began. During the war, he acquired St Teresa of Avila's severed hand and kept it for spiritual guidance, it was returned when he died in 1975.

The hand was initially stolen by General Franco's opposition from a convent in Ronda, but Franco’s nationalist soldiers took it for themselves when they won the Battle of Malaga.

Sister Jenifer is the Mother Superior of the Church of Our Lady of Mercy, Ronda, where the hand is kept on display for people to see.

She tells Johnny I’Anson who St Teresa was, why her hand was cut off, and what made it special.

(Photo: Monument of Saint Teresa of Avila, Spain. Credit: digicomphoto/Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless
0:06.8	searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the
0:11.8	telly we share what we've been watching
0:14.0	Cladie Aide.
0:16.0	Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.
0:19.0	Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.
0:21.0	And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less
0:24.9	searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC sounds. Hello and welcome to the BBC World Service Witness History
0:38.4	podcast with me Johnny Ianson.
0:40.9	We're going back to revisit the 40 year reign of General Franco of Spain and hear how the
0:45.6	dismembered hand of a saint offered spiritual guidance to his dictatorial reign.
0:51.2	Heeded as the polls in the recent general election. tutorial range. nothing else
1:03.2	startle you.
1:05.2	All things for us.
1:06.7	It does not change.
1:10.0	The relic of the incorruptible hand of St. Theresa of Avala sits in the tiny church of Our Lady of
1:15.6	Maced in Rhonda Spain. It's watched over by a group of just four Carmelite nuns.
1:21.2	The Order follows the teachings of St. Theresa of Avala who lived in the mid-16th century.
1:27.0	Sister Jennifer is the mother superior.
1:30.0	A relic is supposed to tell you this life is not everything, there's something bigger.
1:37.2	I stroll for something bigger.
1:38.8	St. Theresa would tell you, I stroll for something bigger.
	...

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