seraph

angelic sky Christian single tradition · 3

A seraph appeared to Teresa of Ávila in a vision known as the transverberation. The seraph held a long spear of gold with fire at its point and repeatedly thrust it through her heart, piercing her entrails. This caused Teresa both ineffable spiritual and bodily pain along with great sweetness and love of God.

↻ synthesized from 3 sources

When

First attested
700 BCE
Attested period
-700 – 2020
Historical notes
Vision experienced by Teresa of Ávila around 1556 during the transverberation episode.

Relationships

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Sources

Source passages

“In another vision, the famous transverberation, a seraph drove the fiery point of a golden lance repeatedly through her heart, causing her an ineffable spiritual and bodily pain”

#1482 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5

“A seraph (Hebrew: שָׂרָף, romanized: sārāf ; plural seraphim Hebrew: שְׂרָפִים, romanized: sərāfīm ) is a celestial or heavenly being originating in Ancient Judaism. The term plays a role in subsequent Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.”

#2159 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001