Incorruptible Roman Catholic Saints – What Has Preserved Their Bodies for Centuries?

While the souls of some of the saints of the Catholic Church have long ago gone to heaven, their bodies are still here. Their bodies have not decayed. They have not been embalmed. This has been the basic definition of what is known as “an incorruptible” in the Catholic Church. Over 100 bodies of people venerated by the Roman Catholic Church are displayed around the world. Some are centuries old.

The major difference between a mummy and an incorruptible is that an incorruptible has not been deliberately preserved. In the Middle Ages, when bodies were exhumed or otherwise come upon which were found to be remarkably intact, the phenomenon was attributed to heavenly intervention and the bodies would be put on display in churches. The word would get out and people would flock to see the incorruptible body.

The most famous incorruptible is Saint Bernadette. A shepherd girl from Lourdes, France, Bernadette Soubirous had 18 apparitions. A lady appeared to her and eventually identified herself as “The Immaculate Conception”. The lady instructed Bernadette to dig in a certain spot where a spring appeared. The spring at Lourdes became known for its healing powers. Uncomfortable with all the hoopla and publicity, Bernadette became a nun and joined the Sisters of Charity. While Bernadette used the waters to cure her asthma, she did not go to the spring when she contracted tuberculosis and died at her order’s motherhouse in Nevers, France at age 35 in 1879.

Bernadette’s body was exhumed on September 2, 1909, 30 years after her death in connection with the petition to declare her a saint. This exhumation took place in the presence of church officials, as well as two doctors. They found Bernadette’s body remarkably intact which greatly supported the petition to have her canonized. The nuns washed and reclothed the body and she was buried again in a new double casket.

Ten years later, her body was exhumed again. Bernadette was again found in a preserved state, although there was some slight discoloration of her face. The washing that the nuns had done in the first exhumation was believed to have caused this. In 1925, the church again exhumed the body. A light wax mask was made and placed over her face to counteract the potentially offensive appearance of the discoloration, as the decision was made to put the body on display. Bernadette’s body was then placed in a gold and glass reliquary in the Chapel of Saint Bernadette at the Sisters of Charity’s motherhouse. Many people make pilgrimages to Lourdes, France every year and visit Nevers, where they can see the body of Saint Bernadette.

Jean Baptiste Marie Vianney is also an incorruptible. He was canonized in 1925 by Pius XI, the same pope who canonized Bernadette. He is more commonly know as Saint John Vianney, or the Curé d’Ars. John Vianney’s journey into the priesthood was neither swift nor easy. He did a stint as a soldier in Napoleon’s army and went AWOL. Not a good student, it took him 11 years to be ordained into the priesthood. When he became the parish priest of Ars, France, John Vianney turned the town into a model of piety, building an orphanage and often hearing confessions for over 16 hours a day. As word of his dedication and holiness spread, as many as 300 people a day made pilgrimages to Ars. John Vianney died at age 73 on August 4, 1859. His body was exhumed in 1909. It had not decayed and was placed in a glass case in the basilica at Ars-sur-Formans where it remains to this day. His heart was placed in a separate container and sent to Rome in 1925, the year he was canonized. In October 2006, St. John Vianney’s heart left France for a short stay in the USA. It was brought to the Cure D’Ars parish in Merrick, Long Island, NY, by Bishop Guy Bagnard of Belley-Ars, France to mark the 80th anniversary celebration of the first American parish named after the saint.

St. Andrew Bobola’s body now lies in the church that bears his name in Warsaw Poland. He was murdered by the Cassock cavalry in Pinsk in 1657. His scarred and abused body did not decay and was venerated for centuries. Then, in 1922, Soviet troops broke open the tomb which was then in Polotsk. They stripped the body of its clothing and took it to Moscow where it was exhibited in an atheist medical museum. Pope Pius XI asked the Russian government to consign the relics to him. Father Edmund A. Walsh, an American Jesuit, as an emissary of the pope, succeeded in bringing it to Rome in 1923. Andrew was canonized and the relics were carried back in triumph to Poland.

Other countries that are home to incorruptibles include India where St. Francis Xavier’s body is on display in the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Goa. Blessed Margaret of Castello, whose body is over 600 years old, lies under the high altar in the Church of St. Domenico at Citta di Castello, Italy. Roman Catholic Saints.com has an extensive list of incorruptibles.

Scientific studies have shown that some of the saints who were considered incorruptible were in fact mummified. Blessed Margaret of Castello is known to have been embalmed. Other cases have been attributed to environment and, in light of these revelations, the Roman Catholic Church no longer accepts an incorruptible body as one of the two miracles for canonization. Catholics do not worship incorruptible bodies or body parts which are called relics. They show their respect for the saints and their holy lives, and this is called veneration.