Lourdes and St. Bernadette
The Travel section of today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution featured an article about a pilgrimage to Lourdes, France. This town is the site where the young Bernadette Soubirous saw several visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1858. While the Catholic Church was initially skeptical, her claims were eventually recognized as worthy of belief following a canonical investigation, and the apparition is now known as Our Lady of Lourdes. St. Bernadette was canonized in 1933.
The AJC article does not present what I think is one of the most fascinating facts of Bernadette’s story – she is one of the Incorruptables, a group of Catholic saints whose bodies have remained free from normal decomposition.
Bernadette died in 1879 at the age of 35. Exhumation is a normal part of the investigation when a person is being considered for canonization. About 30 years after her death, Bernadette’s body was exhumed with startling results:
Bishop Gauthey of Nevers and the church exhumed the body of Bernadette Soubirous on September 22, 1909, in the presence of representatives appointed by the postulators of the cause, two doctors, and a sister of the community. They found that although the crucifix in her hand and the rosary had both oxidized, her body appeared “incorrupt” — preserved from decomposition. This was cited as one of the miracles to support her canonization. They washed and reclothed her body before burial in a new double casket.
The Church exhumed the corpse a second time on April 3, 1919. The body still appeared preserved, however, her face was slightly discolored possibly due to the washing process of the first exhumation.
In 1925, the church exhumed the body for a third time. They took relics, which were sent to Rome. A precise imprint of the face was molded so that the firm of Pierre Imans in Paris could make a light wax mask based on the imprints and on some genuine photos. This was common practice for relics in France, as it was feared that although the body was uncorrupted, the blackish tinge to the face and the sunken eyes and nose would make an unpleasant impression on the public. Imprints of the hands were also taken for the presentation of the body. The remains were then placed in a gold and crystal reliquary in the Chapel of Saint Bernadette at the mother house in Nevers. The site is visited by many pilgrims and the body of Saint Bernadette to this day remains intact despite being nearly one hundred and thirty years old.
Check out these photos of St. Bernadette’s body — and keep in mind that she died in 1879. Amazing!
2 comments so far
Amazing. I knew this fact. However, I had never seen the pictures. Really there is just not enough words to describe this miracle. If there is anyone that doubts God they should look at these pictures.
Keep in mind that the pictures that are linked to show only her face and hands, both of which were covered over in that wax long ago to keep them looking ‘pristine’, so you’re not seeing her real body in those photos. As the article mentions, after the body had been washed after the first exhumation, her hands and face had turned black and mildewy and sunken in when exhumed the next time, and not quite ‘incorruptible’ as the church would like people to think. (Those particular pictures have not been made public.) In order to keep any more deterioration from happening, the wax was applied (making her look a bit prettier that she had in life, with a more narrow and pointier nose and more feminine eyebrows, by the way, not quite as swarthy as she is in photos) and she was sealed into an air-tight glass coffin (which would also help preserve her ‘incorruptible’ body for a VERY long time.) The rest of her body is covered in a habit, so it also appears in good condition, but according to the records, pieces of skin were missing, with the remaining parts being naturally mummified and covered in what appeared to be calcium salts (a natural product of biological breakdown.) If you saw what she really looked like under all that, you wouldn’t think she’d just died (as the term ‘incorruptible’ tries to make you believe.) You’d probably think more of Egyptian mummies, which also have lasted for long periods of time while still looking something like they did in life, but aren’t quite as ‘fresh’ as they could be…