"It's a miracle!"
Posted on 03/23/2014 7:49:27 PM PDT by Alex Murphy
The Catholic belief of “incorruptibility” holds that if a body does not decay after death, the person is holy. It takes two miracles to become a saint; the Church once allowed a perfect corpse to count as one.
Incorruptibility is no longer a miracle, however, perhaps because so many tried to help God along. Oil and herbs were inserted into the muscle cavities of some older popes, for instance.
When Pope Pius XII died in 1958, the Vatican used a wrapping technique similar to what was believed to have been applied to Jesus. It failed miserably. Only days after his death, his nose fell off, and a Swiss Guard fainted due to the stench while he was guarding the body.
[SNIP]
In 2000, Pope John Paul II had [Pope John XXIII] exhumed to be declared “blessed,” part of the progression to sainthood. The airtight coffin had left him virtually undisturbed, and the embalming team wanted to keep it that way.
After the pope’s internal organs were removed and analyzed, the body was placed in a stainless-steel tub for several weeks in a solution of formalin and alcohol, then neutralized for several weeks.
His body then undertook a series of baths in assorted solutions for months at a time, including various mixtures of ethanol, methanol, phenol, camphor, nitrobenzene, turpentine and benzoic acid.
Finally the body was bandaged in linen cloths saturated with a solution of mercury bichloride and ethanol. Then a second team ensconced him with wax on his face and hands. The entire process took about a year.
The Church decided not to rebury Pope John XXIII, instead putting him on display for pilgrims. More than 25,000 people visit St. Peter’s Basilica every day, and many faithful still believe the incorrupt state of his body is a miracle.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
.... The Church decided not to rebury Pope John XXIII, instead putting him on display for pilgrims. More than 25,000 people visit St. Peter’s Basilica every day, and many faithful still believe the incorrupt state of his body is a miracle.
"It's a miracle!"
I don’t understand...
I assume The 12 Apostles have long turned to dust.
I am not aware of evidence to the contrary.
Certainly, if any were Saints, these were
This seems like a varient of Necromancy
King Saul got in trouble for this...
Sorry...but this is just weird. All of it.
i must say, using embalming fluid and vacuum-packing the corpse....seems a bit ....unfair...(like, cheating)... if you’re trying to proclaim a miracle from its preservation
Miracle, indeed.
The Bible is clear on this. “Saints” are simply believers in Christ, called by Him, chosen by Him and bought with His Blood, not works.
I’d hate to get into a poker game with these miracle-seeking guys..
This is about as elaborate as mummification in the days of ancient Egypt.
The Church does not claim that ALL those who lived saintly lives will be incorruptible. It only happens to a few, apparently at God's discretion.
"This seems like a varient of Necromancy King Saul got in trouble for this..."
Necromancy is when someone tries to contact the dead to gain information from them. That is what Saul did. A saint's body found to be be incorruptible is nothing like necromancy.
A long time ago, when I was in high school (Spain) we went on field trip to a monastery. We were told ahead of the trip that we would see the body of the founder of the monastery who had died sometime in the Middle Ages, and that the body was “miraculously preserved”. I don’t remember many details, other than I was very excited at the idea of seeing a body preserved for over 1000 years... It was a big disappointment, it looked just like the Egyptian mummies when they remove the bandages: small, dry, black. It was hard to recognize it as a real body, let alone one miraculously preserved...
Really? Other than the prophecies of Jesus' body not seeing corruption and him not being left in death, where is that written in the Bible? I would like to know.
Ok, I see
But this body seems to be quite corruptible
except through a preservative process
an embalmer would love (I've known many)
And maintaining a illusion of Incorruptibility for the Laity
Is seriously bizarre
So, Alex Murphy, what do you believe?
And maintaining a illusion of Incorruptibility for the Laity Is seriously bizarre"
There are true cases of incorruptible saints. See the book by Joan Carroll Cruz, "The Incorruptibles". This article seems focused primarily on the ones that aren't authentically incorruptible and which, if these accounts are accurate, cannot be condoned.
Since when?
Kewel...
I was never taught this as a doctrine of the Church, through 13 years of Catholic education.
The catholics are one wacky tribe.
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