Incorrupt Bodies of Saints - Huh?

[wcknight]

Rot and decay are the normal order of things. Dead folks normally become very rigid just a few hours after death. The vast majority of folks look pretty gruesome after just a few years. No one looks good after a couple of decades.

The fact that some of the saints are still presentable after 40 to 100 years is just about impossible, St Rita of Casia’s body is over 400 years old. Normally only a skeleton would remain after such a long time.

 

[Sideline]

The fact that some of the saints are still presentable after 40 to 100 years is just about impossible, St Rita of Casia’s body is over 400 years old. Normally only a skeleton would remain after such a long time.

That pretty much completely contradicts what we were taught in a Forensic Anthropology. There are any number of ways that people become naturally preserved.

There are several factors at work such as the temperature, moisture level, presence of insects, presence or absence of oxygen, accidental exposure to certain chemicals, and even the amount of fatty tissue present.

In most cases, bodies do degrade fairly quickly, but there are many cases of people being preserved for thousands of years. I remember one case in particular that happened when several graves in a graveyard were being moved. A body was found lying atop one of the caskets. The clothes were trashed, but the body was in remarkably good condition. The police were called, and a forensic anthropologist was asked to establish the time since death of the individual. His estimate was between 1 and 2 weeks, but cautioned that further study and information was needed.

He was only off by about 130 years. It turned out, that the body was of a Confederate soldier during the American Civil War. At some point he was taken out of his casket and laid on top of it. No one knows when or why he was removed, or even how he remained in such a state of non-decomposition.

 

[willwhite07]

i realize this is very possible and you are lucky you have had the blessings to witness these things…im only saying i dont look for the shall we say distasteful things with our saints and holy men and women of the church.i also know like myself i chase after alot of history in the church and in different countrys,regimes ect,but i dont look for things of rome to be defiled,we must accept a whole lot of dogma at times but incorrupt bodies is only one aspect of a holy saints condition.We must consider their good works and all the bloessed things they did of GOD AND FOR HIM.I thank god every day for all his saints and martyrs since god spoke to adam…
we need to question some things but praise and adore what is of God.

 

[1holycatholic]

Is it incorruptability of convenience and circumstance, or incorruptability imposed supernaturally? And how can we be sure?

Don’t know. It might be peculiar phenomena, but it isn’t an article of faith in any case.

It amazes me how much effort has been put into preserving Lenin’s corpse.

 

[willwhite07]

Amen brother,i just said something to that effect…we need to quit looking for the bad or corrupt in things. Dont we have enough people who catecism bash already? i know this is a apologetics site but lets have reverence for the holy…peace

 

[gjpayne]

Also, of course, we’d have to consider environment. Would St. Bernadette still be incorrupt if her body were not in the glass container and were instead in a conventional casket that may have been used at the time?

A few facts that might help.

Saint Marie Bernard died in 1879, and was buried in the ground using the conventional process of the time. She was dug up in 1909 during the cause for her canonization. The rosary in her hands was rusted to pieces and the crucifix had oxidized and turned a strange green color. Her religious habit was soaked with water from her being underground for thirty years. She, however, looked like she had just died (as she does today).

The sisters of her convent re-dressed her and gave her a new rosary and crucifix, and then put her back in the coffin and back into the same patch of ground she went. She was dug up again in 1919, 10 years later, and put back into the ground. It wasn’t until she was declared Blessed in 1925 that she was finally dug up and put into the crystal coffin in the convent. She was declared a Saint in 1933.

So, she has only been in the crystal coffin since 1925. Not counting the brief times she was dug up, she spent over 40 years in the ground prior to that.