Any incorruptibles outside the Catholic church?

  • Thread starter Thread starter k8ybrd
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
K

k8ybrd

Guest
I find stories of the saints very fascinating, especially ones that have been found to be incorrupt upon exhuming. Has there ever been evidence of this type of miracle in other non-Catholic religions?
 
Hey! That is one incredible question. I for one can’t wait to hear. Miracles of the Saints and the incorruptible thing, and the perfumed essence have always fascinated me, as well. Sure hope there is someone out there who can tell us about this.
 
We’ve had incorrupt saints. Can’t think of any examples, but I’ve heard of them from time to time.
 
k8ybrd said:
I find stories of the saints very fascinating, especially ones that have been found to be incorrupt upon exhuming. Has there ever been evidence of this type of miracle in other non-Catholic religions?
Click to expand...
St John Maximovitch’s relics are incorrupt. There are a great many stories of the uncovering of incorrupt relics exuding a a sweet fragrance.

Link
 
Forgot about the Orthodox Church (sorry:shrug:). I’m not surprised that some Saint of the Orthodox Church were found incorruptible. I guess I was hoping to hear if a Protestant church had any incorruptibles.

I do plan to study more about Orthodox saints and the history of the Orthodox Church, though, so thank you so much for that link!!!
 
sojo said:
Forgot about the Orthodox Church (sorry:shrug:). I’m not surprised that some Saint of the Orthodox Church were found incorruptible. I guess I was hoping to hear if a Protestant church had any incorruptibles.

I do plan to study more about Orthodox saints and the history of the Orthodox Church, though, so thank you so much for that link!!!
Click to expand...
I’m unaware of any protestant churches which keep relics, which isn’t surprising when you consider relics were one of the issues that led to the Reformation.
 
There are of course bodies preserved more or less incorrupt by natural means (e.g., natural mummies in the Egyptian desert, Inca human sacrificial victims in the mountains of Peru, the bog bodies of Britain); but I’m assuming this is not what you mean. Other than what’s been mentioned, I am not aware of any miraculously incorrupt bodies.

By the way, there is a fascinating book on the subject: The Incorruptibles, by Joan Carroll Cruz.
 
Look up incorruptibles in the Search feature of CAF. There are a lot of threads.

Protestants don’t go in for canonization or digging up bodies, a routine feature of canonization proceedings, so they don’t have an opportunity to discover “incorrupt” bodies.

In books or websites with pictures of undisclosed age, the bodies often appear mummified, not incorrupt, especially the Italian bodies that are hundreds of years old. It is known that St. Bernadette is covered with a wax mask, and many other bodies are similarly covered or are actually life-like statues containing the saint’s relics. The photo of St. Bernadette is not dated. One poster on either CAF or Phatmass a few years back said that he had visited her shrine and seen her dessicated face under the mask. I don’t have the reference. It is noteworthy that her face now does not resemble her appearance in the photo taken of her immediately after death in her coffin, which showed advanced emaciation–she died of TB.

I found this link: skeptoid.com/episodes/4126–which discusses the phenomenon of incorruptibility and includes a link to the statements of the doctors present during the three (!) exhumations of Bernadette. It is clear that she was mummified. It turns out that Padre Pio was embalmed but imperfectly preserved, and that his face is also a wax mask. Many other saints’ bodies actually consist of recumbent life-like statues containing their relics.

There are many natural factors which aid in preservation of corpses. Before the 20th c. people who died of disease experienced prolonged starvation and wasting, aggravated by religious penance, so that there was little body fat and few gut bacteria to hasten decomposition. Many of the saints were recognized as such and buried in multiple caskets, including lead and zinc caskets above ground, which also promote preservation. One reads reports of an initially well-preserved body viewed on the initial exhumation which was founded completely disintegrated on subsequent exhumations.

In addition to Wikipedia, here are some other references:

Nickell, J., Looking For A Miracle: Weeping Icons, Relics, Stigmata, Visions and Healing Cures (Prometheus Books, 1993). Available for under $4.00 including shipping under bookfinder.com.

Pringle, H., The Mummy Congress : Science, Obsession, and the Everlasting Dead (Hyperion, 2001). Also available for under $4.00, including shipping, through bookfinder.com

It’s an interesting topic.
 
Thank you Victorious and 1234. I guess I’ve never outgrown my interest in this stuff – even as a young child (long before I became Catholic), I made a beeline to the Egyptian Mummies when we visited The Museum of Natural History in NYC. I will check out the book mentioned by Victorious and the citations/links from 1234.

BTW, on a trip to Mexico many years ago, we visited one of those secret, hidden, “sealed up” convents from when the govt there was prohibiting any religious sentiment. We went into the crypt basement beneath the convent, and they many of the sisters bodies were mummified. I was surprised that the Church didn’t seem to have a problem with allowing the public to view their remains.
 
sojo said:
Thank you Victorious and 1234. I guess I’ve never outgrown my interest in this stuff – even as a young child (long before I became Catholic), I made a beeline to the Egyptian Mummies when we visited The Museum of Natural History in NYC. I will check out the book mentioned by Victorious and the citations/links from 1234.

BTW, on a trip to Mexico many years ago, we visited one of those secret, hidden, “sealed up” convents from when the govt there was prohibiting any religious sentiment. We went into the crypt basement beneath the convent, and they many of the sisters bodies were mummified. I was surprised that the Church didn’t seem to have a problem with allowing the public to view their remains.
Click to expand...
I think a lot of people like this stuff. In the case of the Catholic “incorruptibles”, it combines a fascination with mummification with a desire for miracles. But I do resent the fact that the local church officials do not, in the case of Bernadette, the most famous example of being “incorruptible”, the fact that what people are looking at is not her remains, but a wax effigy covering her remains. The detailed notes of the doctors who exhumed her make very clear that she was mummified, probably because of extreme emaciation at death, judging for her appearance in her casket, and distressing to look at, hence the mask. It is clear that many posters regard her remains and those of many others as perfectly preserved, when they’re not. These misperceptions are scattered through the book “The Incorruptibles”.

The sad thing about Bernadette as that as in death as well as throughout her life, she is constantly being scrutinized.
 
Willy_Jose said:
There is a Catholic blogger who recently made a series of posts on this.

bluepanjeet.net/category/series/the-incorruptibles/
Click to expand...
This link:

bluepanjeet.net/2010/08/10/6834/correcting-incorruptibles-list-saints-mistaken-incorrupt/

…on the website listed in the quote describes several saints falsely alleged to be incorruptible, including the Little Flower, Therese of Lisieux, who predicted her own decomposition. Her arm bones traveled the UK, Ireland and the US recently.

Of note is the remarkably vicious comment, with an avatar of St. Francis!
 
Oh theres been quite a few.

The body of Saint Bernadette of Lourdes comes to mind of the top of my head. But after the Saints, would also be many that are Blessed. But this gives you an idea. Google St Bernadette and see what she looks like. Its amazing.

Saint Agnes of Montepulciano
Saint Albert the Great
Saint Alphege of Canterbury
Saint Andrew Bobola
Saint Angela Merici
Saint Anthony Maria Zaccaria
Saint Antoninus
Saint Benedict the Moor
Saint Benezet
Saint Bernadette Soubirous
Saint Bernardine of Siena
Saint Camillus de Lellis
Saint Catherine Labouré
Saint Catherine of Bologna
Saint Catherine of Genoa
Saint Catherine dei Ricci
Saint Catherine of Siena
Saint Charles Borromeo
Saint Cecilia
Saint Clare of Montefalco
Saint Coloman
Saint Cuthbert
Saint Didacus of Alcala (San Diego de Alcala)
Saint Edmund Rich of Canterbury
Saint Edward the Confessor
Saint Etheldreda
Saint Eustochia Calafato
Saint Frances of Rome
Saint Francis de Sales
Saint Francis Xavier
Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini
Saint Germaine Cousin
Saint Guthlac
Annibale Maria di Francia (Founder of the Rogationist and Daughters of Divine Zeal)
Saint Herculanus of Piegaro
Saint Hugh of Lincoln
Saint Idesbald
Saint Isidore the Farmer
Saint Jane Frances de Chantal
Saint Jean-Marie-Baptiste Vianney (The Curé of Ars)
Saint Jeanne de Lestonnac
Saint John Bosco
Saint John of God
Saint John of the Cross
Saint John Southworth
Saint Josaphat
Saint Julie Billiart
Saint Louis Bertrand
Saint Louise de Marillac
Saint Lucy Filippini
Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat
Saint Margaret of Cortona
Saint Maria Goretti
Saint Martin de Porres
Saint Mary Magdalen de’ Pazzi
Saint Nicholas of Tolentino
Saint Pacifico of San Severino
Saint Pascal Baylon
Saint Peregrine Laziosi
Saint Philip Neri
Saint Pierre Julien Eymard
Saint Pio of Pietrelcina
Saint Rita of Cascia
Saint Romuald
Saint Rose of Lima
Saint Rose of Viterbo
Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne
Saint Sperandia
Saint Stanislaus Kostka
Saint Teresa of Avila
Saint Teresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart (Anna Maria Redi)
Saint Ubald of Gubbio
Saint Veronica Giuliani
Saint Vincent de Paul
Saint Vincent Pallotti
Saint Waltheof
Saint Werburgh
Saint Withburga
Saint Wunibald
Saint Zita
 
I thought the question essentially was “Any non-Catholic Incorruptible Saints”. I thought I remembered a site that listed a few but I can’t find the site now.

Help.
 
There of course have many also within the Eastern Orthodox. But I haven’t followed much on this or anywhere else.

Be interesting to see though.
 
GaryTaylor said:
Oh theres been quite a few.

The body of Saint Bernadette of Lourdes comes to mind of the top of my head. But after the Saints, would also be many that are Blessed. But this gives you an idea. Google St Bernadette and see what she looks like. Its amazing.

Saint Agnes of Montepulciano
Saint Albert the Great
Saint Alphege of Canterbury
Saint Andrew Bobola
Saint Angela Merici
Saint Anthony Maria Zaccaria
Saint Antoninus
Saint Benedict the Moor
Saint Benezet
Saint Bernadette Soubirous
Saint Bernardine of Siena
Saint Camillus de Lellis
Saint Catherine Labouré
Saint Catherine of Bologna
Saint Catherine of Genoa
Saint Catherine dei Ricci
Saint Catherine of Siena
Saint Charles Borromeo
Saint Cecilia
Saint Clare of Montefalco
Saint Coloman
Saint Cuthbert
Saint Didacus of Alcala (San Diego de Alcala)
Saint Edmund Rich of Canterbury
Saint Edward the Confessor
Saint Etheldreda
Saint Eustochia Calafato
Saint Frances of Rome
Saint Francis de Sales
Saint Francis Xavier
Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini
Saint Germaine Cousin
Saint Guthlac
Annibale Maria di Francia (Founder of the Rogationist and Daughters of Divine Zeal)
Saint Herculanus of Piegaro
Saint Hugh of Lincoln
Saint Idesbald
Saint Isidore the Farmer
Saint Jane Frances de Chantal
Saint Jean-Marie-Baptiste Vianney (The Curé of Ars)
Saint Jeanne de Lestonnac
Saint John Bosco
Saint John of God
Saint John of the Cross
Saint John Southworth
Saint Josaphat
Saint Julie Billiart
Saint Louis Bertrand
Saint Louise de Marillac
Saint Lucy Filippini
Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat
Saint Margaret of Cortona
Saint Maria Goretti
Saint Martin de Porres
Saint Mary Magdalen de’ Pazzi
Saint Nicholas of Tolentino
Saint Pacifico of San Severino
Saint Pascal Baylon
Saint Peregrine Laziosi
Saint Philip Neri
Saint Pierre Julien Eymard
Saint Pio of Pietrelcina
Saint Rita of Cascia
Saint Romuald
Saint Rose of Lima
Saint Rose of Viterbo
Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne
Saint Sperandia
Saint Stanislaus Kostka
Saint Teresa of Avila
Saint Teresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart (Anna Maria Redi)
Saint Ubald of Gubbio
Saint Veronica Giuliani
Saint Vincent de Paul
Saint Vincent Pallotti
Saint Waltheof
Saint Werburgh
Saint Withburga
Saint Wunibald
Saint Zita
Click to expand...
Can you produce some documentation or proof of these? Especially of Waltheof, Werburgh, Withburga, Wunibald, and other obscure saints? The links I have included and many others included on other numerous previous threads on CAF describe wax masks, (Bernadette, Padre Pio), recumbent images containing relics (Blaise, Vianney), mummification (many of the old Italian nun-saints), bodies initially incorrupt, later found disintegrated on subsequent exhumations; bodies initially incorrupt, later found to be decomposing (Bl. Pier Frassati), preserved bones only despite image in see-through casket suggesting incorruptibility(St. Clare-and I suspect many others). Almost all the information I can find online supporting incorruptibility either consists of no evidence, poor images, or references to the book “The Incorruptibles”, and little else. Wikipedia has a long list of names, each a link to the person’s life, but many of the descriptions referred to don’t even include a description of incorruptibility.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top