Monday, September 19, 2011

Exhumation of Pius X


He had passed away thirty years before when this photograph was taken during the exhumation.

15 comments:

  1. On May 20, 1944, this photo was taken. As can be seen, the body was discovered to be "fu ritrovato pressoché intatto" (discovered nearly intact). Also, there had been no embalming when he died according to his explicit desires.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, my goodness-I've never seen this before! He looks almost...scary!
    I guess this is what happens when a body isn't embalmed, right?

    Barb

    ReplyDelete
  3. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Tomb_of_pope_Pius_X.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sancte Pater, sic transit gloria mundi

    ReplyDelete
  5. As can be seen he is incorrupt. It is not a skull, but a face.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hmm....Give it a few years. It looks pretty skeletal to me.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The Italians have a very different idea of "incorrupt" than do most of us.
    Bit it does no harm.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Pius X pray for us!

    He obviously wasn't incorrupt though (except maybe by crazy Italian standards)

    ReplyDelete
  9. John,
    where did you find this photo? I have an extensive library of Pius X books and have never seen it published before?
    BTW, it is true that the flesh was white; there are still relics of the exterior skin taken from the body that are white/fleshy in colour. There may have been some deterioration, but he was "recognizable" and almost intact. -- Pius IX, on the other hand, was very dark-coloured but still considered incorrupt. Other saints and blesseds have also manifested certain signs of deterioration, but have still been noted as "incorrupt." Only in 5 exceptional cases has the Church used the incorruption of a body as one of the official miracles for canonization. The last of these was Saint Andrew Bobola, SJ. In his case, it was not so much the "beauty" of the body, but the fact that having been terribly mutilated by the tortures of his martyrdom, the body remained unchanged for some 300 years, the wounds exposing the interior of the corpse -- without any putrefaction or alteration. So the incorruption was in service of proving the horrors of his martyrdom.
    In the case of St. Pius X, however, by the 1990s, the body did begin to deteriorate within its glass coffin. It was removed from St. Peter's for several months to be treated. When it was returned, it was noted that the remains had been so thickly wrapped up under the papal vestments that he looked more like John XXIII than himself!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I don't understand. Why would they do this in 1944 during the war and for what reason? He was beatified in 1951 and canonized in 1954.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Non mi sembra un corpo incorrotto.

    ReplyDelete
  12. The pic came from a fabulous new book on the life of Pio X that is available at the gift shop located at the birthplace of Pius X, in his old home in the village of Riese Pio X, located near Padua. Well worth a visit!

    ReplyDelete
  13. è mummificato, non "incorrotto"

    ReplyDelete
  14. From examining these remarkable photos from 1944, one can only conclude that "Incorruptibility lies in the eyes of the beholder."
    Did any popes mandate that they never be exhumed after death, regardless of their canonization status? Personally I would prefer the biblical axiom of "Dust you are and to dust you shall return." be left uninterrupted.

    ReplyDelete