PilgrimJWT:
There are plenty of reports of incorrupt canonized saints in Church history. However, it remains a puzzling phenomenon and I really wonder whether it is a mark of sanctity. For example, the body of Francis of Assissi is most definitely corrupt. Does that mean he was less of a saint than those whose bodies are incorrupt?
To answer your question, NO!
In fact, incorruptability is NOT one of the things looked for in the Beatification/Canonization process of a saint-candidate but rather he or she’s personal sanctity. Most of the saints are CORRUPT to their very bones in the grave, including some very famous ones, such as St. Therese of Lisiux (“The Little Flower”), the phenomenon occuring to only with a very few saints, and even today, and many of them are simply mummies, naturally so due to the natural environment at burial.
I know of no saint, whose incorruptability is declared miraculous by the Church! In fact, I understand that a special commission by the Church with science and medical experts have recently examined such claims and found most of them as non-miraculous, with only a few that may be. Yet, the Church refrains from declaring on such things.
St. Bernardette of Lourdes is a startling example of a person dead since the mid1800’s, yet her flesh remains perfectly pliable as if she had died recently! On the other hand, will her body remain so preserved, say, 100 years later? I personally believe that God may indeed perform such a miracle for a given saint for a certain time, yet later in time, the body returns to dust.
Complicating the issue is the use or non-use of embalming fluids. Stalin is perfectly preserve in his tomb in Moscow, but such a preservation is not miraclous simply because there is a natural reason for his preservation. Many of the incorruptable saints are naturally preserved as well, thus such preservation is likewise non-miraculous.
On the other hand, some of these saints are preserved under the most terrible of conditions, with no embalming envolved, yet are still preserved! St. Charbell Makhlouf, a holy Maronite Rite monk, has been dead since 1898. He was buried in his monks habit, directly into the ground without a coffin!
Get Joan Carrol Cruz’s book,
The Incorruptibles, ISBN:0-89555-066-0, to read this story of the phenomenon that caused the monastary to exhume him, place him in a coffin, and from which further “fluids” would ooze from the body and other miraculous phenomenon, let alone the incorrupt condition of the body!
Yet the Church ramains silent on such things! Even this, the most spectacular of the incorruptable phenomenon recorded in the last part of the book, remain without any declaration at all, save the fact that the man was declared a saint in 1977.
Again, incorruptability is not a requirement for a person to be canonized a saint, but there is no doubt that such phenomenon does get the thinking process started as to the sanctity of the individual. Yet, the phenomenon remains outside of the actual determination of sanctity.
Does God do these things for those examples he wants to display to all of us? I believe so, St. Bernardette, St. Charbell Makhlouf, St. John Vianny, among a few others, are examples that exist today.
God bless,
PAX
Bill+†+
For those who believe, no proof is necessary;
For those who do not believe, no proof is possible.
