Beccafumi, 1513-1515. Click here for a discussion of this image
of St. Catherine of Siena in which Christ himself brought the host to her.
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Niccolò Bambini (1651-1736)
The Consecrated Host Flies to St. Teresa
The "Scalzi" Church, Venice, Italy
Francisco Ribera's 1590 Vita Matris Teresiae details Teresa of Ávila's devotion to the Eucharist. She encouraged her sisters in the Discalced Carmelites to take communion frequently, and she said that she was often able to see the Lord himself when looking at the Eucharistic host (Acta Sanctorum, October vol. 7, 680-83). And Julian of Ávila said that over his twenty years as chaplain at Teresa's convent he often saw her go into ecstasy when receiving Communion (Ibid., 735). But these texts say nothing about a miraculous reception of the host such as we see in this painting. Nor is it mentioned in the Acta's lengthy introduction (Ibid., 109-538). More likely, the painting was influenced by images of
a miracle
Beccafumi, 1513-1515. Click here for a discussion of this image
of St. Catherine of Siena in which Christ himself brought the host to her.
View this image in full resolution.
Read more about images of St. Teresa of Ávila.
Photographed at the church by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.