Page 88 - Nada temas, dice ella

Antonio and president of the organ- isation. This choice was motivated by the analogies believed to exist be- tween the ‘mission of the founders’ of the female Falangists and those of Teresa, ‘silently, without show and without discourses, for these things are not characteristic of women, but simply Teresa’s way’.8
Although this patronage was never recognised by the Vatican, the Femi- nine Section was the organisation most involved in the propagation of
a model of ‘Christian feminism’ as op- posed to republican emancipation- ism.9 This construction would be sup- ported, until the 1960s, by copious manuals written by clergy, politicians and authors, propagating an image
of the Carmelite mystic who ‘preferred the spinning wheel to the quill’, as- similated into the same standard and symbolic destiny as that of Queen Isabella of Castile.
Teresa, depicted in the painting
by José María Sert as a symbol of in- tercession on behalf of the ‘National martyrs’, became Franco’s favourite saint as well as his protector, both dur- ing the ‘crusade’ and while he was in power. The conquest of Madrid, which coincidentally took place on the date of the saint’s birth – 28 March – was interpreted as miraculous. It was also invoked as a justification for the bishop of Malaga’s gift to Franco of the hand relic, which would remain in the chap- el at the palace of El Pardo until 1976.
After the war, the victory celebra- tions organised in major cities across Spain from May 1939 onwards were transformed into a moment of trium- phalist exaltation and messages
of redemption, occasionally uniting various components of the regime
in a dense backdrop of processions, misas de campaña (campaign masses), Falangist parades and commemora- tions of the fallen. Franco was the focus of numerous rites, character- ised by a clear blend of the sacred and political, reinforcing his role as an envoy of providence. The solemn ceremony of the ‘Offering of the Sword of Victory’ was emblematic in this regard; it took place on 20 May 1939 in the church of Saint Barbara
in Madrid in the presence of Cardinal Primate Isidro Gomá and marked the investiture of the generalissimo as Caudillo por la gracia de Dios (Caudillo by the Grace of God).10
In the wake of the victory celebra- tions, the feast of Saint Teresa on
15 October took on a special resonance. In Barcelona, the Arma de Intenden- cia, or Army Service Office, opened the festivities in honour of Teresa,
its patron saint, with a misa de campaña, officiated in the presence of civilian and military authorities on the barracks patio. It is worth quoting the descrip- tion in the Correo Catalán dated 17 October 1939:
‘In the patio ... profusely decorated with National flags and flags of the
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