To contemplate authentic mummies it is not necessary to travel to Egypt or visit the rooms of the British Museum in London. In the center of Seville, within a radius of just one kilometer, rest three incorrupt bodies that feed the faith, curiosity and curiosity of thousands of people. It is about King Fernando III, patron saint of the city, as well as a saint, almost eight centuries old; the religious and aristocrat Doña María Coronel, with six centuries; and the most young, the nun Santa Ángela de la Cruz, who is already close to the century. If the relic, in its second meaning of the RAE, is a “part of the body of a saint”, the three incorrupt bodies that Seville guards represent the great divine relic. The part and the whole.
They also treasure the plus that historians, and not only the Church, have certified that the three incorrupt bodies really belong to the three characters that are venerated. This is not the case with other relics scattered throughout the world, which have a “high degree of falsehood”as explained by the historian Manuel Jesús Roldán Salgueiro, author of the books Convents of Seville e Churches of Sevilleboth from Almuzara editorial.
Of course, the stories of the Seville triad have nothing to do with Egyptian mummies, although they have remote points of connection, such as when the renowned doctor Gabriel Sánchez de la Cuesta ran the risk of being excommunicated by the Church in the 1940safter studying the remains of San Fernando and comparing them with those of the mummy of Pharaoh Ramses II due to the chemical processes to which both bodies had been subjected.
In any case, the three incorrupt bodies that are honored in Seville are not as accessible as the Egyptian mummies that are exhibited in museums. There is a whole liturgy to be able to contemplate them just a few days a year, in the case of San Fernando and Doña María Coronel. On the other hand, Santa Ángela de la Cruz can be visited almost daily. Her remains are in a chapel in the convent that bears her name. Her body, dressed in the nun’s habit, is covered with wax on her hands and face. Every day, dozens of people come to pray to a saint to whom two miracles are attributed. He died on March 2, 1932. And the Republican City Council of the time gave him all the honors. His mortal remains were exposed for several days. Thousands of people marched. The name of the street where the convent is located was changed from Alcázares to Sor Ángela de la Cruz. In addition, her grave was allowed to remain in the convent, through special permission. Her beatification process concluded on July 12, 1982.
Strolling through the center of Seville you can take a walk from the convent of Santa Ángela de la Cruz to the Cathedral, where the remains of San Fernando are in a silver urn in the Royal Chapel at the foot of the Virgen de los Reyes . The tomb can be visited, but it is closed. Opens four times a year and, through a window, it is possible to contemplate the mummified body of the king of Castile, between 1217 and 1252, and of León, between 1230 and 1252. It was he who definitively united the kingdoms of Castilla y León, battling to reconquer the lands occupied by the Muslims and spread Christianity. He is also the father of Alfonso X el Sabio. Very soon, on August 22, the silver urn will be opened for the Sevillians to revere the holy king.