Incorruptibility is a Catholic and Orthodox belief that divine intervention allows some human bodies (specifically saints and beati) to completely or partially avoid the normal process of decomposition after death as a sign of their holiness.
In Catholicism, if a body is judged as incorruptible after death, this is most often seen as a sign that the individual is a saint. Canon law allows inspection of the body so that relics can be taken and sent to Rome.
The relics must be sealed with wax and the body must be replaced after inspection. These ritual inspections are performed very rarely and can only be performed by a bishop according to the requirements of canon law. A pontifical commission can authorize inspection of the relics and demand a written report.[2] After solemn inspection of the relics, it can be decided that the body is presented in an open reliquary and displayed for veneration. Catholic law allows saints to be buried under the altar, so Mass can be celebrated above the remains.
Only part of a body might be incorrupt. In the case of Anthony of Padua, only his tongue and jaw were preserved, the rest of the body having decomposed. Bonaventure, one of the men who originally exhumed the corpse in 1263, saw this as a sign that Anthony was a "messenger of God’s love."[3] Likewise, one hagiography attributes the tongue's preservation to the "perfection of the teachings formed upon it."[4]
Evaluation
Incorruptibility is seen as distinct from the good preservation of a body, or from mummification. Incorruptible bodies are often said to have the odour of sanctity, exuding a sweet or floral, pleasant aroma.[citation needed]
Not every saint is expected to have an incorruptible corpse. Although believers see incorruptibility as supernatural, it is no longer counted as a miracle in the recognition of a saint.[5]
Embalmed bodies are not recognized as incorruptibles. For example, although the body of Pope John XXIII remained in a remarkably intact state after its exhumation, Church officials remarked that the body had been embalmed[6] and additionally that there was a lack of oxygen in his sealed triple coffin.[7]
Saints
The remains of Bernadette Soubirous were inspected multiple times, and reports by the church tribunal confirmed that the body was preserved. The opening of the coffin was attended by multiple canons, the mayor and the bishop in 1919, and repeated in 1925.[8] However, the face and hands were covered with a wax mask.[9]
The body of Saint Zita, found to be incorrupt by the Catholic Church. (c. 1218 – April 27, 1272).
The body of Saint Rita of Cascia, found to be incorrupt by the Catholic Church. (1381 – May 22, 1457).
The body of Saint Virginia Centurione, found to be incorrupt by the Catholic Church. (April 2, 1587 – December 15, 1651).
The body of Saint Bernadette of Lourdes with wax face and hand coverings, declared to appear incorrupt by a committee in 1909 (subsequent exhumations indicated corruption). (January 7, 1844 – April 16, 1879).
The body of Saint John Mary Vianney wearing a wax mask, found to be incorrupt by the Catholic Church. (May 8, 1786 – August 4, 1859).
The body of Saint Catherine Labouré, found to be incorrupt by the Catholic Church. (May 2, 1806 – December 31, 1876).
To the Eastern Orthodox, a distinction is made between natural mummification and what is believed to be supernatural incorruptibility. While incorruptibility is not generally deemed to be a prerequisite for sainthood, there are reportedly many Eastern Orthodox saints whose bodies have been found to be incorrupt and are in much veneration.[citation needed] These include:
Saint Alexander of Svir – the incorrupt relics of the saint were removed from the Svir Monastery by the Bolsheviks on December 20, 1918, after several unsuccessful attempts to confiscate them. Finally, the holy relics were sent to Petrograd's Military Medical Academy. There they remained for nearly eighty years. A second uncovering of St Alexander's relics took place in December 1997, before their return to the Svir Monastery.[10]
Saint Ioasaph of Belgorod – In 1918 the Bolsheviks removed Saint Ioasaph's relics from his shrine in the cathedral of the Holy Trinity at Belgorod, and for some seventy years, their whereabouts remained unknown. In 1927, the cathedral itself was demolished. In the late 1980s, the relics were discovered in Leningrad's Museum of Religion and Atheism, and on 16 September 1991, they were solemnly returned to the new Cathedral of the Transfiguration of Our Lord in Belgorod, in the presence of Patriarch Alexy II.[11]
Rabbi Louis Ginzberg in his monumental "Legends of the Jews" (Vol. 4, Chapter 10) based on the Jewish Apocrypha and Aggadah mentions an alleged case of bodily incorruptibility of the Biblical Baruch, scribe of Jeremiah (whose tomb is found in Iraq).[13] Similar stories are told of later Hasidic saints, such as RebbeElimelech of Lizhensk and others.
↑ Archived at The Incorruptibles, The bodies of many medieval Catholic saints and martyrs have resisted decay for centuries— just the sort of mystery that begs for scientific inquiry, By Heather Pringle, Discover Vol. 22 No. 6 (June 2001)
Cruz, Joan Carroll (1977 and 1991). The Incorruptibles: A Study of the Incorruption of the Bodies of Various Catholic Saints and Beati, by, OCDS, TAN Books. ISBN0-89555-066-0.
Jeremiah, Ken (2012). Christian Mummification: An Interpretive History of the Preservation of Saints, Martyrs and Others, OCDS, McFarland & Co., Inc. ISBN0786465190.
Andrew Bobola, SJ was a Polish missionary and martyr of the Society of Jesus, known as the Apostle of Lithuania and the "hunter of souls". He was beaten and tortured to death during the Khmelnytsky Uprising. He was canonized in 1938 by Pope Pius XI.
In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains or personal effects of a saint or other person preserved for the purpose of veneration as a tangible memorial. Relics are an important aspect of some forms of Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, shamanism, and many other religions. Relic derives from the Latin reliquiae, meaning "remains", and a form of the Latin verb relinquere, to "leave behind, or abandon". A reliquary is a shrine that houses one or more religious relics.
Bernadette Soubirous, also known as Bernadette of Lourdes, was the firstborn daughter of a miller from Lourdes, in the department of Hautes-Pyrénées in France, and is best known for experiencing apparitions of a "young lady" who asked for a chapel to be built at the nearby cave-grotto. These apparitions occurred between 11 February and 16 July 1858, and the young lady who appeared to her identified herself as the "Immaculate Conception".
Rita of Cascia, OSA, was an Italian widow and Augustinian nun. After Rita's husband died, she joined a small community of nuns, who later became Augustinians, where she was known both for practicing mortification of the flesh and for the efficacy of her prayers. Various miracles are attributed to her intercession, and she is often portrayed with a bleeding wound on her forehead, which is understood to indicate a partial stigmata.
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May 22 - Eastern Orthodox Church calendar - May 24
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Alexander Svirsky or Alexander of Svir (1448–1533) was an Eastern Orthodox saint, monk, and hegumen of the Russian Orthodox Church.
January 1 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - January 3
January 18 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - January 20
Vissarion of the Agathonos, secular name: Andreas Korkoliakos, was a Greek Orthodox monk and Saint of the Agathonos Monastery, close to Lamia, Central Greece. He became a monk in his teen years and was regarded by those who knew him as an especially good-hearted cleric with humanitarian spirit.
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Job of Pochayev, to the world Ivan Zalizo, in Great Schema John was an Eastern Orthodox monk and saint.
A Lourdes grotto is a replica of the grotto where the Lourdes apparitions occurred in 1858, in the town of Lourdes in France, now part of the sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes. Some Lourdes grottos are almost identical reproductions of the scene of the apparitions, with statues of Our Lady of Lourdes and Bernadette Soubirous in a natural or artificial cave, while others may differ from the original in size, shape or style.
Joasaph of Belgorod was an 18th-century Russian Orthodox hierarch, bishop of Belgorod from 1748 until his death.
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