THE DOCTORS AND THE INCORRUPTIBLES
The Incorruptibles
Joan Carroll Cruz
Taken from the back cover of the book, published by Tan Books and Publications, Inc.
Rockford, Illinois 61105
This remarkable phenomenon of the incorruption of certain saints’ bodies is the subject of this enthralling and well-documented study. The author, Joan Carroll Cruz, spent five years researching the lives of over 100 saints and beata in preparation for this book.
One of the least known and most easily disbelieved religious facts is treated here in a scholarly and competent manner. As a result of this work, many will finally understand that bodily incorruption is a reality in the world of religion.
Destined to enlighten and convince.
The author has included only six saints who are Doctors of the Church in her book. These will be included with a few others who grace this inspirational book. One in particular is the woman on the font cover.
Saint Bernadette Soubirous will be the first listed. She is also listed in the church calendar always listed on this site under the name Bernadette of Lourdes.
Chapter 99
SAINT BERNADETTE SOUBIROUS
1844 – 1879
The celebrated visionary of Lourdes was born to a very poor family on January 7, 1844. As a child she suffered severely from asthma and was such a poor student she was delayed from making her First Holy Communion until the year 1858, when she was fourteen years of age. On February 11 of that year, the first of her visions took place as she was gathering firewood along the river Gave. This drama, known to Catholics around the world, occurred eighteen times in all.
On March 25, 1858, the Blessed Virgin appeared for the last time and identified herself as the “Immaculate Conception.” With these words the Mother of God confirmed the pious belief which Pope Pius IX, four years earlier, had raised to the dignity of a dogma of the infallible Church.
The Sisters of Nevers, who operated a school at Lourdes, were later entrusted with Bernadette’s care, and at the age of twenty-two, she was admitted to their order. She spent the rest of her days at the motherhouse in Nevers, a short distance from Lourdes.
The Saint was always very sickly but attended patiently to her duties as infirmarian and sacristan. After suffering heroically for years from tuberculosis of the bone in the right knee, and many complications, she died a holy death on April 16th, 1879. Burial was in the Chapel of St. Joseph in the convent grounds behind the motherhouse in Nevers.
The body was first exhumed thirty years after her death. On September 22, 1909, in the presence of representatives appointed by the postulators of the cause, two doctors, and the sisters of the community, the coffin was removed by workmen from the place where it had been entombed thirty years before. On opening the lid, they discerned no odor and the virginal body lay exposed, completely victorious over the laws of nature.
Although the clothing was damp, and sawdust and charcoal surrounded the body, the arms and face were completely unaffected and had maintained their natural skin tone. The teeth were barely visible through the slightly parted lips and the eyes appeared somewhat sunken. Her perfect hands held a rosary which had become rusty, and the crucifix which lay upon her breast was coated with verdigris.
While the sisters were removing the damp robes, they discovered that while the body was entire and without the least trace of corruption, it was nevertheless emaciated. The left knee was found to be much smaller than the right, which had been affected by tuberculosis.
The sisters, with the best of intentions, thoroughly washed the body and reclothed it in a new religious habit before placing it in a new casket. After the official documents pertaining to the exhumation were placed beside the body and the double casket officially sealed, the remains were again consigned to the tomb (.#1see footnote below)
The second exhumation took place at the end of the Process on April 3, 1919. The body of the Venerable was found in the same state of preservation as ten years earlier except that the face was slightly discolored, due to the washing it had undergone during the first exhumation. A worker in wax who had frequently applied such a coating to the faces of the newly dead was entrusted with the task of coating the face who had been dead forty years.
The sacred relic was placed in a coffin of gold and glass and can be viewed in the Chapel of Saint Bernadette at the motherhouse in Nevers.
#1 Footnote: The Sublime Shepherdess, The Life of Saint Bernadette of Lourdes. Frances Parkinson Keyes. Julian Messner, Inc. New York. 1947. pp. 162-164.
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SAINT ALBERT THE GREAT
1206 - 1280
Albert was born in Lauingen on the Danube, and against the wishes of his noble family became a Dominican friar while a student at the University of Padua. He excelled particularly in the natural sciences, in which his knowledge was described as encyclopedic. He correlated the findings of the science with philosophy and laid the foundation for the proper use of reason in matters of faith, which was further developed by his illustrious pupil, St. Thomas Aquinas. He taught at many European colleges, particularly those of Ratisbon, Freiburg, Cologne, and Paris. He was for a time provincial of his order in Germany and in 1260 accepted, under obedience, the bishopric of Ratisbon, from which he resigned after two years. His holiness and knowledge were so highly regarded that he was dubbed “The Great” by his contemporaries and also “Universal Doctor.” He was described as “a man no less than godlike in all knowledge so that he may fitly be called the wonder and miracle of our age.’
The last two years of his life were undoubtedly very trying and humiliating for his strength of mind failed him, and he was frequently afflicted with loss of memory. He died peaceful at Cologne without illness, sitting in his chair amid his confreres. His body, clothed in pontifical robes, was consigned to a wooden coffin, which was placed in a temporary vault in the conventual church near the high altar. There is some evidence that the body was given more than the usual preparation for burial, since it is recorded that the church of Ratison, which Albert had served as bishop requested the removal of the remains of the Saint to their city, but when this was refused them, there was sent instead a relic, a piece of intestines, “which had been buried behind the high altar.”
After approximately three years when the permanent tomb was completed in the choir, the transfer of the remains took place and the body was found at this time in a state of perfect preservation and exhaling a delightful fragrance. The remains were carefully replaced in the old coffin, and this was deposited in the new vault, were it remained for two centuries.
After the University of Cologne grew to impressive proportions and the number of Albert’s devotees increased in equal measure, the tomb of the Saint in the Dominican Church of Cologne no longer seemed suitable for his holy relics, so an elaborate mausoleum was constructed. During the transfer of the relic to this worthy tomb in the year 1483, the body was again examined in the presence of many ecclesiastics, the prior of the convent of Cologne, the rector of the university, many professors, doctors and students. The records of the Church of St Andrew, which now possesses the relics of the Saint, indicated that the body at this disinterment was reduced to a skeleton, and so it might be considered, for the descriptions of the findings as found from other sources are carefully worded. They relate that the head was almost intact, the eyes still were found in their sockets the chin was found to be covered with flesh and part of the beard, one ear was seen and the feet were still attached to the legs, indicating of course, that the major part of the relic was not conserved. The witnesses, however, were astonished to discover a delightful perfume about the body, which had been consigned to the grave for over two hundred years. The relics were placed in a glass case at this time and remained in it for many years. After this translation, miracles of healing were accorded to many of the sick who visited the tomb, and many visions were recorded.
Over three hundred years later, in 1804, the relics of the Saint were removed from the damaged Dominican Church and taken to St. Andrew’s Church, but this was done without ceremony since Cologne was then occupied by Napoleonic troops.
The remains of the Saint which consist only of bones are wrapped in silk and rest in two cases which bear the seals of the Archbishops of Cologne. These are kept in a stone sarcophagus in the crypt of St. Andrew’s Church.
The heroic quality of Albert’s virtues was recognized by Pope Gregory XV during his beautification in 1622. Throughout the centuries St. Albert the Great was regarded as a Doctor of the Church, and this title was officially conferred on him in 1931 by Pope Pius XI, who, by doing so, equivalently declared him to be a saint of the universal Church.
The
background music is Andrea Bocelli's "Ave Maria".