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The Incorruptible corpses of Catholic saints
- Thread starter Spiderman
- Start date
Photographing the Real Bodies of Incorrupt SaintsIf this video doesn't convert you to Catholicism, I don't know what will
Scientists are baffled that some of the corpses of Catholic saints don't decompose.
The incorrupt body of Blessed Anna Maria Taigi, wax portraiture over bone, San Crisogono, Rome.
How does one know the faces aren't wax?
We do actually know. Wax coverings have replaced discolored and missing parts. This isn't much of a mystery like some claim it is.
Those are well maintained saints!
You shure that's not M&M? Looks just like him.
Turn up the heater.
Source of that information??
I mean... there's info on that right on the wiki page discussing this. Wikipedia isn't the best place to end your search, but it is a great place to start it. Follow the links provided there.
Incorruptibility - Wikipedia
I asked you to support your position that Wax coverings have replaced discolored and missing parts. But I saw nothing related to that. Did you kind of invoke that because as an atheist you have a knee-jerk dislike of incorruptibility or do you have evidence that Wax coverings have replaced discolored and missing parts.
I believe that if this was true we would still have the body of St Peter and others who died before Christianity was popular enough for people to preserve the bodies.
No need to be an ***. Go bother someone else with your tone. I could throw the "you're just biased" card your way too and discussion would stop just as quickly.
Also, ctrl+f is your friend for finding key words. I still understand if Wikipedia won't convince anyone because anyone can edit that. There are more direct reports out there, though. Here's one: Andre Ravier, S.J.
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If calling out invented information gets me called an ***, then I am fine with being called one.
SkepticThinker
Veteran Member
Scientists (the good ones, anyway 
) aren't baffled at all by this BS. It's called wax.
) aren't baffled at all by this BS. It's called wax.
Ah, irony.
Jesster should have given some paranormal answer. If she had claimed that the bodies were maintained with alien secretions instead of wax, I'm sure you would have accepted it unquestioningly.
SkepticThinker
Veteran Member
In some cases, the bodies have been covered in wax.
"As part of the canonization process, her body was exhumed three separate times, in 1909, 1919, and finally in 1925, when she was moved to the crystal casket. Her body was pronounced by the church as officially “incorrupt,” but it seems the qualifications for that term may have been somewhat lax. In the words of the attending doctor in 1919: “The body is practically mummified, covered with patches of mildew and quite a notable layer of salts, which appear to be calcium salts… The skin has disappeared in some places, but it is still present on most parts of the body.”
After a few ribs were removed to be sent to Rome as relics, it was decided that the “blackish color” of her face might be off-putting to pilgrims, and so a “light wax mask” was in order. Her new face and hands were designed by Pierre Imans, a designer of fashion mannequins in Paris."
The Not-Quite Incorruptible St. Bernadette of Lourdes
You can see that they're covered in wax just by looking at them.
And in other cases, the bodies were embalmed and mummified, or taken apart and re-embalmed over and over as time passed, among other techniques. For example, Saint Padre Pio's face was covered with a silicon mask.
http://nypost.com/2014/03/22/making-of-a-saint-the-vaticans-quest-to-preserve-its-leaders/
How can a corpse be incorruptible?
Investigative Briefs: “Incorruptible” Corpse of St. Cecilia - Center for Inquiry
Perhaps "uncorrupted" means that after death, she didn't get any "action", thereby remaining chaste, eh?