Dead Saints on display

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Luvtosew said:

**Psalm 16:10 because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see corruption.​

Acts 2:27 because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see corruption.**

So are you saying now none of us should be buried.

This is David pleading with the Lord not to let him rot in the grave, but to resurrect him, and also that the Lord will not let him die.

Yes cemetaries have work done, but they need a court order, and also they don’t open the caskets, and put people on display.
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Well, presuming local law requires court permission for a body to be exhumed, this would have to be sought and given for the body of a saint just like any other body. I seem to
recall at least a few cases where scientific tests and the like could not be done on the bodies of saints because the necessary legal permissions could not be obtained.

Remember a lot of these exhumations and displays were initially done in earlier less well-regulated times. And it makes no sense to suddenly up and require the burial of someone who has been happily ensconced above ground for hundreds of years, does it? It would involve every bit as much disturbance to the remains as a disinterment would.

Funeral homes certainly do display bodies by the way - ever heard of a ‘viewing’? It’s exactly that - casket open, body on display. Sometimes at funerals the casket is keft open as well. And it serves exactly the same purpose as having a relic or the body of a saint - so that those who love them can feel close to them in a special way.
 
Luvtosew said:
Well I’m glad you found out your Patron Saint was real. 😉
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But that’s the whole point of having the bodies in reliquaries! Saints aren’t just some legendary figures, like some Greek god; they’re actual, flesh and bone humans! They lived in a time and a place, just like we do.

By seeing the remains of saints, this view is confirmed!
 
In Louisville, KY at St. Martin church there are two side altars with full skeletal remains within glass cases. It’s very cool, as they’re not covered with wax masks or anything, just bare bones.
 
YoungTradCath said:
In Louisville, KY at St. Martin church there are two side altars with full skeletal remains within glass cases. It’s very cool, as they’re not covered with wax masks or anything, just bare bones.
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Do you know who they are? I’d love to know! 😃
 
Luvtosew said:
Well thats a bit different. It was a Mass grave of what 40-70,000 people it said, with just the bones left. And well I think they did what was best to do with them or they could of buried them again.
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Using people’s bones for artistic expression is worse than reverencing relics, IMHO, although I would be happy to see the practice of dismembering of saints’ bodies for relics come to an end. Not that I expect that the Church will change her practices to suit you or me.
 
Luvtosew said:
they should be in the ground laid to rest.😦
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Their soul is with God; the body is without life. Viewing the corpse of a Saint is no more disturbing to me than viewing a body during a Wake. In the case of ‘incorruptables’ I even view it as an affirmation of the reality of the Resurrection that awaits all of us. The separation between soul and body is temporary.
 
MusicforMovies said:
Their soul is with God; the body is without life. Viewing the corpse of a Saint is no more disturbing to me than viewing a body during a Wake. In the case of ‘incorruptables’ I even view it as an affirmation of the reality of the Resurrection that awaits all of us. The separation between soul and body is temporary.
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If we believe the saint to be in heaven (and indeed we do) then the body is not something to be viewed as “without life”. If they are in heaven today, then resurrection is guaranteed for them at the end of time.
 
I merely meant in the sense that the soul ‘anima’ is no longer ‘animating’ the body.

1 Thessalonians 5:10 Who died for us; that, whether we watch or sleep, we may live together with him. (Douay-Rheims)

Luke 20:38 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive (NIV)

(… and I totally agree with with you)

Thanks for the correction. 🙂

Peace
 
LilyM said:
Well, presuming local law requires court permission for a body to be exhumed, this would have to be sought and given for the body of a saint just like any other body. I seem to
recall at least a few cases where scientific tests and the like could not be done on the bodies of saints because the necessary legal permissions could not be obtained.

Remember a lot of these exhumations and displays were initially done in earlier less well-regulated times. And it makes no sense to suddenly up and require the burial of someone who has been happily ensconced above ground for hundreds of years, does it? It would involve every bit as much disturbance to the remains as a disinterment would.

Funeral homes certainly do display bodies by the way - ever heard of a ‘viewing’? It’s exactly that - casket open, body on display. Sometimes at funerals the casket is keft open as well. And it serves exactly the same purpose as having a relic or the body of a saint - so that those who love them can feel close to them in a special way.
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Of course I’ve been to many viewings, but then the person is buried. I am not squimish about a dead body, that is not my point. I of course won’t be visiting any:) but I was curious about why, as I do still believe they should be buried, but who am I, and as one poster said, their spirit is in heaven, and people pray to the Saints, now if we had Jesus’s body here on earth, we would of not believed he was the Son of God if he had not been resurected. We would not be worshipping him except as a prophet. Just my opinion.🙂
 
Violent Images. do not go if you are sensitive…

If you go to Portugal, do not miss the Capela dos ossos (Chapel of the Bones), where there is an inscription: “We bones that are here, for yours we are waiting!”.
grgrgrgrggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…

one

two

three

four

five
 
FaithByProxy said:
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You do know that many of the older Saints aren’t even in one piece anymore, right? Several of the Saints have been divided up between different churches, often across several countries.
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Yeah this disturbs me.
 
Luvtosew said:
Well I read they were dug up and one even 3 different times. Also I think its quite awful to have dead bodies on display, let alone dig them up or worst yet perhaps never of had buried them in the first place, and I have a hard time thinking people go and look at them.
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I guess you wouldn’t want to go to the Vatican. They have some of the bodies of the late popes under the altars. 🙂
 
It’s one thing to venerate a body or to maybe take a few locks of hair, but I don’t understand the basis for dismembering and dismantling bodies.

See this interesting passage about St Teresa and other Saints.
 
TrueLight said:
It’s one thing to venerate a body or to maybe take a few locks of hair, but I don’t understand the basis for dismembering and dismantling bodies.
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So that more people have access to the saint.

Catholics have never traditionally been concerned that a dead body remain whole. In fact, embalming bodies is a non-christian practice that our culture somehow latched onto. Embalming bodies generally reflects either a lack of belief in resurrection, or a belief that the resurrection requires the body to be intact.

But Catholics believe that, even if the body no longer exists at all physically (Joan of Arc), that nonetheless, on the last day, all souls will be reunited with the same physical body that they had in life. So it really makes no difference whether a body is whole or not.

What matters is not whether the parts of a body are separated, but how the parts of the body are treated: with reverence and veneration, or with contempt and disgust.
 
w_s_s said:
But Catholics believe that, even if the body no longer exists at all physically (Joan of Arc), that nonetheless, on the last day, all souls will be reunited with the same physical body that they had in life. So it really makes no difference whether a body is whole or not.
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Okay yes, I would venture to say that most Christians believe that a body doesn’t need to be whole to be resurrected. Otherwise what would happen to victims of plane crashes, being lost at sea, etc.
What matters is not whether the parts of a body are separated, but how the parts of the body are treated: with reverence and veneration, or with contempt and disgust.
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I find it macabre.

I don’t need to have someone’s ring finger for me to venerate and revere a Saint. But I guess we’re all different.
 
Oh my so it gets worst, they are dismembering bodies, didn’t know that.😦
 
There is a relic of a Saint in the altar of every Catholic Church.
 
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