Page 90 - Nada temas, dice ella

of religion reminiscent of Tridentine models.
The inaugural Pregón, delivered on 28 March by Blas Piñar (then National Falange Minister) in the Templo Na- cional de Santa Teresa, reconstructed the events of the life of Teresa as ‘ex- emplary’ in the light of problems of the period. An ‘omnipresent’ Spain strug- gling against heresy and Protestantism was linked to Teresa, the ‘exceptional woman’ who reacted to the ‘dangers of her age’ with the Reform – ‘whose ob- jective consisted in achieving the con- version of the Lutherans, the evangeli- sation of the Indians and the sanctifica- tion of the priests’ – linked to current ‘similar problems’ that characterised the modern age.14
In Ávila, the centenary began with the symbolic awarding of the keys to the city to Cardinal Cento. The Pregón, de- livered by José Antonio Vaca de Osma, Gobernador Civil, included praise for the landscape and environment of Cas- tile, where ‘Imperial, missionary, mys- tical and heroic Spain of the sixteenth century Spain’ were said to have been forged, as well as for the life and mysti- cism of Teresa. Emphasis was placed
on remembering the miraculous stages of the ‘crusade, the divine war against communism’. There was also a refer- ence to Teresian lineage: ‘Ahumada,
a name that proclaims in its origin a symbol of heraldic Teresianism’.15
The journey taken across Spain by the ‘incorrupt arm’ of Teresa, usually
kept at Alba de Tormes, was with-
out doubt the event that evoked the greatest resonance, reviving baroque tradition and choreography but in an institutionalised and militarised form. Thanks to a decree issued by the om- nipotent Caudillo, ‘honours of a Gen- eral Captain with full authority’ were attributed to the relic. The ceremony that took place in front of the altar set up in Madrid’s Plaza Mayor, attended by thousands of people, members of the army, the Falange and the ecclesi- astical hierarchy, saw the reading of the decree of September 1962 that ap- pointed the Carmelite saint ‘captain of the armies’.
In reality, during the journey, signs of a different experience of the Teresian cult emerged, signs that were more akin to popular devotion and responsive to the need for interces- sion and emotion. This was undoubt- edly a type of devotion shot through with memories of the baroque, which continued to accompany the relic in newspapers articles, leaflets and the No-Do, but it should also be seen as a re-appropriation of the relic’s powers from the ground up. In August 1963, the ‘pilgrim relic’ returned to Alba
de Tormes, where another ritual took place: in the square in front of the crowd and the Dukes of Alba, Teresa – or rather, the relic – was named ‘mayoress of honour in perpetuity’, thus sealing the ‘triumphal journey’ of the ‘incorrupt arm’.
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