Incorruptibility

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Invincibility is a quality that the Roman Catholic and Orthodox hagiographic traditions ascribe to the remains of various saints when there is a corpse preservation that, from a religious point of view, cannot be explained by assumptions of natural causes. In such cases the state of preservation of the corpse is attributed to divine intervention. Such incorruptibility is particularly assumed when natural circumstances would accelerate the decomposition.

General

Immortality is to be distinguished from artificial mummification and in some religions a distinction is made between natural physical and biochemical processes that maintain body shape.

Several full body relics are offered in what appears to be an incorrupt state of worship. Such incorruptibility is understood as a supernatural phenomenon . By preventing or delaying the natural process of decay of the human corpse , God's creative power affirms the sanctity of the dead. The biblical background of this view is above all Ps 16,10  EU , as he u. a. in Acts 2.27  EU is quoted: "You still let your pious see the corruption."

The phenomenon of natural mummification can also be observed regardless of religious veneration of the deceased, examples of which are the Knight von Kahlbutz and the mummies in the Bremen lead cellar .

Roman Catholic Church

In the Roman Catholic Church , incorruptibility has been regarded as a divine sign since the Middle Ages. However , incorruptibility is not considered a miracle relevant to canonization .

An example of a man-made mummification is the undestroyed corpse of Pope Saint John XXIII. that was preserved by chemical processes and has survived to this day thanks to the exclusion of air in a triple-sealed coffin .

Since the 19th century attempts have been made to differentiate imperishability from natural and artificial mummifications by scientific means. Some of the incorruptible corpses that are in reliquary shrines have faces and hands covered with wax replicas, for example St. Bernadette . Padre Pio's face is covered by a silicone mask that also recreates the bushy eyebrows and beard. This mask was made from a 1968 photograph of Padre Pio's corpse by the Gems studio in London, usually active in wax museum and ethnological museums.

Orthodox Church

In the Orthodox churches too , with a considerable number of saints, their incorruptibility is part of their veneration. Various legends tell of the wonderful discovery of such relics.

Examples

Orthodox tradition

Relics of hll. Anthony, John and Eustathius in the Holy Spirit Orthodox Church in Vilnius

Roman Catholic tradition

Saint Bernadette Soubirous in the chapel of the Saint-Gildard monastery, Nevers

Picture gallery

literature

  • Joan Carroll Cruz: The Incorruptibles: A Study of the Incorruption of the Bodies of Various Catholic Saints and Beati . Rockford (Illinois) 1977, ISBN 978-0895550668
  • Marco Frenschkowski : The incorruptibility of saints and vampires: A study of cultural ambivalence. In: Christoph Augustynowicz, Ursula Reber (eds.): Vampire belief and magia posthuma in the discourse of the Habsburg monarchy. Lit, Wien et al. 2011, ISBN 978-3-643-50320-6 , pp. 53-68

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Joan Carroll Cruz, The Incorruptibles: A Study of the Incorruption of the Bodies of Various Catholic Saints and Beati , Tan Books, Charlotte, 2012
  2. In Luther's translation of the Greek "hosios" (actually "pious") with "saint" - also in the King James Bible : "neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption" - the Vulgate version of the psalm word plays one role Role: "non dabis sanctum tuum videre corruptionem".
  3. ^ Arnold Angenendt : History of Religiosity in the Middle Ages. Primus-Verlag, Darmstadt, 2nd, revised. Edition 2000, ISBN 3-89678-172-3 , p. 692.
  4. ^ Body of saint Padre Pio exhumed, on display in Italy. Los Angeles Times , April 25, 2008, accessed June 25, 2011 .
  5. ^ Thousands queue to see corpse of Padre Pio. The Independent , April 25, 2008, accessed June 25, 2011 .
  6. Urte Krass: Controlled Loss of Face. Padre Pio and photography . In: Journal for the History of Ideas , Volume IV / 2 (2010), p. 95 f.