Legacy Matters
Incorruptibility is the quality of a body that does not decompose after death. A body cannot be incorruptible if it has undergone any embalming. Often, a sweet smell can be detected.
St Bernaette Soubrois was a shepherd girl in Lourdes, France, gathering firewood when she reported visions of "a lady". At the sight of the visions, a hard and dry place, a spring sprang up with water that had miraculous healing properties.
Now a famous pilgrimage site for the sick, Lourdes receives over a million visitors a year. While many thousands of miraculous cures have been claimed, only 66 have been confirmed after rigorous proof that the cure is inexplicable scientifically. Where scientists are looking for God.
Given the scientific rigour of the process, Jean Pierre Bely had to wait a decade before his sudden ability to walk during a mass at Lourdes, despite previously suffering from a debilitating disease, was officially sanctioned as not explainable by science. The toughness of this scientific peer-review process explains why only 66 Lourdes cases since 1862 have made it to official "miracle" status.
St. Bernadette died in 1879 and was canonized a saint in 1933.
Her body was exhumed in 1909 and fount incorruptilble. It was exhumed again in 1919, still incorruptible. In 1925 she was placed in a crystal coffin, in a chapel in the Church of St. Gildard at the covent of Nevers where she has been on view ever since, still incorruptible.
You can read the reports of the doctors and see more photos here.
Posted by Jill Fallon at February 10, 2006 4:07 PM | Permalink