O
onetimeposter
Guest
I’ve seen a bunch of incorruptible pictures…they look rather ghastly. Some look way too good to be true…skeptical, uhm yeah big time.
I’ve also read about at least one Saint having a wax mask put over her face!
Anyway, in the right conditions, body decomposition is slowed.
If you want to believe that it’s a miracle…knock yourself out.
Members of other religions have been discovered in uncorrupted states. And at least one case of incorruptibility was discovered in a person who clearly hadn’t exactly lived a saintly life. Cardinal Shuster, an Italian archbishop, had been a fascist and friend of dictator Benito Mussolini. His corpse was found uncorrupted 31 years after his death [source: Fortean Times].
…Bernadette died in 1879 and was exhumed under candidacy of beatification in 1909. Her corpse was uncorrupted. She was reinterred in her crypt and dug up again in 1919 and 1923. Upon the third exhumation, she was dissected. Her organs were still soft and malleable [source: Fortean Times]. She was placed on display in a reliquary, where she remains today, at the convent of St. Gildard at Nevers, France.
Bernadette stands (or lies) as a sterling example of incorruptibility. But her corpse also provides ammunition for skeptics. Her hands and face appear incredibly lifelike, but this is due to a wax covering. Beneath the waxy exterior, her skin has browned. While there’s no scientific explanation for why her body would have remained so well-preserved without the aid of embalming or environmental conditions, she shows that all bodies will eventually rot. Just how long that process takes, however, may depend on any number of factors.
I’ve also read about at least one Saint having a wax mask put over her face!
Anyway, in the right conditions, body decomposition is slowed.
If you want to believe that it’s a miracle…knock yourself out.
Members of other religions have been discovered in uncorrupted states. And at least one case of incorruptibility was discovered in a person who clearly hadn’t exactly lived a saintly life. Cardinal Shuster, an Italian archbishop, had been a fascist and friend of dictator Benito Mussolini. His corpse was found uncorrupted 31 years after his death [source: Fortean Times].
…Bernadette died in 1879 and was exhumed under candidacy of beatification in 1909. Her corpse was uncorrupted. She was reinterred in her crypt and dug up again in 1919 and 1923. Upon the third exhumation, she was dissected. Her organs were still soft and malleable [source: Fortean Times]. She was placed on display in a reliquary, where she remains today, at the convent of St. Gildard at Nevers, France.
Bernadette stands (or lies) as a sterling example of incorruptibility. But her corpse also provides ammunition for skeptics. Her hands and face appear incredibly lifelike, but this is due to a wax covering. Beneath the waxy exterior, her skin has browned. While there’s no scientific explanation for why her body would have remained so well-preserved without the aid of embalming or environmental conditions, she shows that all bodies will eventually rot. Just how long that process takes, however, may depend on any number of factors.