More than a week after her death, there were concerns about the state of Mother Teresa’s body — especially during India’s monsoon season with its high temperatures and 90 percent humidity.
But if Mother Teresa is, indeed, headed for official sainthood in five years, as many inside and out of the Roman Catholic Church expect, such concerns may have been misplaced.
There is an extraordinary and well-documented, but little-known and understood, phenomenon of incorruptibility of certain saints’ bodies. Author Joan Carroll Cruz spent five years researching the lives of more than 100 saints and beata, or saints-in-the-making, in preparation of her 1977 book “The Incorruptibles,” in which she explores why the bodies of these seemingly mortal men and women did not decompose after death.
The book is illustrated with photographs of many of these saints — some still on display in cathedrals, churches and mausolea — hundreds of years after their deaths, burials and exhumations.
“The incorruptibles have been incorrectly classified as natural mummies,” Cruz concludes. The result of deliberate or accidental preservations, she says, are without exception, shriveled, rigid, dried out specimens like those found in the pyramids. What is most astonishing about the incorruptible saints, however, is they are neither dry nor rigid, but quite moist and flexible — even after the passage of centuries.
Even under the worst of conditions, in which no embalming took place and where excessive moisture was present in tombs, Cruz documents case after case of perfectly preserved bodies that shocked those who discovered them.
Natural mummification requires ideal and rapid drying circumstances. But in the case of many saints, the burials were delayed due to the reluctance of the devout to be separated from the objects of their veneration — much as Mother Teresa’s burial was delayed so millions could see her remains.
Anyone who watched the funeral in person or on television could not help but notice that her body remained in excellent condition. Many commentators — and even the most skeptical journalists — mentioned that it appeared she was merely asleep.
“The deliberate and speedy destruction of the bodies of three saints was intended when lime was placed in the caskets of St. Francis Xavier, St. John of the Cross and St. Pascal Baylon,” Cruz writes in the Incorruptibles. “In the first two cases the hasty destruction could be more conveniently and hygienically undertaken by the transference of their bones rather than the removal of their half-decayed corpses. In the case of St. Pascal, the hasty destruction was hoped for so that no offensive odors would be detected by the many visitors to the shrine, a fact that might detract from the devotion lavished on his memory. In all three cases the preservation trumped. In fact, in the case of St. Francis Xavier, in spite of this initial treatment, various translations, the amputation of his members for relics and the rough handling of the body endured when forced into a grave too small to accommodate its normal length, it was yet so beautiful 142 years later that the best description we have of him was recorded at the time of that exhumation. The body of St. John of the Cross remains even to the present day perfectly flexible.”
Similar stories abound. In fact, some of the saints examined by Cruz were found after long periods submerged in rivers, exposed to air and other elements.
“Who can explain the reasons for this strange dispensation, which affects so many holy persons who, moreover, represent many nations and who lived in various environmental conditions?” Cruz asks. “Who can explain why these holy relics remained unharmed although buried under diverse situations and frequently in toms in which the previous occupants had complied with natural laws? Further, who can account for the mysterious exudations of clear, sweet selling oils which flowed at one time or another from most of these relics, to the perplexity of examining physicians?”
The perfume-like odors are the most frequent phenomenon associated with the incorruptibles. The oil which flowed from one saint — the Blessed Matthia Nazzarei of Matelica, who died in 1320, has been flowing continuously from her hands and feet since the year 1920, according to Cruz.
While Mother Teresa was embalmed, one can only wonder if such a process was necessary in light of the history of saints and beata. In fact, several news services reported that the condition of her body actually seemed to improve during the week before her burial.
“The nun’s body, which had appeared swollen and discolored in recent days, was so lifelike during Thursday’s tribute she appeared to be sleeping,” said an Associated Press dispatch by Joseph Coleman from Calcutta on Set. 11. “Her face was a normal color and appeared touched up with make-up.”
It is doubtful that make-up would have been permitted on Mother Teresa who eschewed it her entire life.
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