Observations placeholder
Saint Teresa of Avila - Sees a number of devils lay hold of a body in a shroud
Identifier
000434
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Here she is condemning a poor dead man for not confessing, and she gets a hallucination, so again the demons are hers – a symbol of the unnecessary malice instead of letting him rest in peace...............
A description of the experience
The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila by Herself
he died without confessing, but I did not think, all the same, that he would be damned. While his body was being laid in its shroud, I saw a number of devils lay hold of it. They seemed to be playing with it and tearing at it, tossing it from one to another with great hooks. I was utterly horrified.
What I had seen drove me half out of my mind. But during the funeral service I saw no more devils. Afterwards, however, when they laid the body in the grave, there was such a multitude in them waiting there to seize it that I was beside myself at the sight and needed no small presence of mind to conceal the fact.