A photo from open sources
This girl died 135 years ago. Now she lies in a glass the coffin. The shadow of death did not touch her face. She seems to sleep soundly restful sleep and, like a sleeping princess, awaits his prince so that he woke her with a gentle kiss.
A photo from open sources
The phenomenon of the “white lady”
Maria Bernard (or Bernadette) Subira was born on January 7, 1844 years in a village near the French city of Lourdes in a poor family. Her father was a miller and mother was a laundress. Bernadette was the eldest of five children who survived in childhood. They lived in such a need that the girl was not able to get any education, and at 12 she was forced to become a servant.
On February 11, 1858, Bernadette went with her sister and friend for brushwood. Suddenly she heard a slight noise and saw that being nearby the grotto is illuminated by a gentle, lively light, and the rosehip bush at the entrance swaying as if from the wind. The girl appeared in the lighted grotto “something white, like a young lady” (her companions didn’t noticed).
Over the next six months, the “white lady” showed Bernadette 17 more times. During 11 appearances, she did not say anything, then called for repentance and prayer for sinners and ordered to build on this place is a chapel.
A photo from open sources
After several insistent requests by Bernadette to give his name the “young lady” finally answered: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” This answer confused the local priest: an illiterate girl, which even the catechism was not given to, could not know about the proclaimed four years before Pope Pius IX the dogma of the Immaculate Conception Virgin Mary, and therefore, she did not invent anything.
“Young lady” ordered Bernadette to dig a hole in the corner of the grotto, which then broke through a spring with healing water. In Lourdes tumbled down crowds of pilgrims hungry for healing.
In 1868, Bernadette entered the monastery in Nevers, where looked after patients and was engaged in needlework. She thought no any of her own merits in the fact that the Mother of God appeared to her: “I had no right to this grace. The Blessed Virgin took me, as they raise a pebble from the road … If the Blessed Virgin chose me, it is because I was the most ignorant. If she would find some even more ignorant than me, she would choose her”.
The miracle of St. Bernadette
On April 16, 1879, Maria Bernarda died of tuberculosis, having lived only 35 years old. On April 19th she was buried in galvanized oak. the coffin.
A photo from open sources
Meanwhile, the rumor about the poor girl to whom she appeared Our Lady, and the miraculous power of the Lourdes spring spread throughout France, and the question arose of canonization Mary Bernard. For this it was necessary to implement the canonical examination of the body of the deceased. September 22, 1909 was produced exhumation. A detailed official report on this is in the archive. Monastery of Saint-Gildard. It says that at 8:30 a.m. the coffin was discovered in the presence of Monsignor Gauthier, Bishop of Neversky, and also members of the diocesan tribunal.
By removing the coffin lid, a perfectly preserved body was found. Bernadette. Her face shone with girlish beauty, her eyes were closed as if she was in a deep sleep, and her mouth was parted. Head slightly tilted to the left, arms folded over chest and entwined heavily rusted beads; her skin, from under which they shone through veins, in perfect condition, adjacent to the tissues; equal and nails on hands and feet were in excellent condition.
A detailed examination of the body was performed by two doctors. Upon withdrawal vestments Bernadette’s whole body looked like a living, was elastic and intact in every part of it. After the study was a protocol has been drawn up with the signatures of doctors and witnesses. Nun sisters washed and dressed the body in new vestments, and then put it in a new, double coffin that has been closed, sealed and re-placed to the old tomb.
The exhumation was carried out twice more – in 1919 and in 1925, and again, the body was imperishable. After that, the remains were placed to the relic in the chapel of St. Bernadette in Ne-Faith. Beatification (rite of blessing) took place on June 14, 1925, canonization – December 8, 1933. Commemoration of St. Bernadette – April 16th. In France, her day is also celebrated on February 18.
The place of the appearance of the Virgin St. Bernadette turned into one from the main centers of the Catholic pilgrimage. Annually in Lourdes up to five million pilgrims come. Sources in the Catholic churches claim that only in the first 50 years of pilgrimage received a complete cure for a wide variety of diseases at least 4000 human. A temple was erected at the site of the grotto Notre Dame de Lourdes.
A photo from open sources
Beautiful fairy tale
The state of the body of St. Bernadette contradicts all laws nature and science. 135 years after death, the body must remain one skeleton. After cardiac arrest, the blood stops circulating, body cells do not receive oxygen and die in a few minutes. The decomposition of the body largely depends on the conditions in which it located, but usually this process begins after a few days.
A photo from open sources
After a few weeks, the hair and nails are separated from the body. Through for several months, body tissues take a liquid form. In a year from bodies usually have only one skeleton and teeth and only traces of tissue. Body but Saint Bernadette is not in the least subjected to processes decomposition – neither external nor internal – and to this day retains amazing freshness and beauty.
Miracle? But what is a miracle? So we call what they cannot give a clear explanation of the human mind and science in its modern condition.
The relics – the remains of the saints of the Christian church – are an object religious worship in the Orthodox and Catholic churches from time immemorial. But for the most part, these are skeleton bones or dried bodies that underwent natural mummification in special burial conditions (for example, in dry and cold climates of caves Pskovo-Pechersky monastery).
There are two main positions that explain the beautiful preservation of the human body after death. The church believes that bodies the saints were not decomposed by the will of God, who preserved relics incorrupt especially for believers. In addition, it is believed that the remains of the saints of God contain grace capable of heal diseases.
Science believes that the safety of a corpse directly depends on those the conditions in which he was held. If it’s dry soil, alright absorbent liquid, and cool climate, then the body has more chances of conservation (mummification) than if it were in humid environment. In addition, there are a number of ways to slow down decomposition (for example, embalming, known since ancient times times).
Of particular note is saponification – the process of transformation human fat in wax (grease). In this case, the body after death completely retains its weight (unlike the process mummification) and outwardly may look imperishable. Although, of course, it is not.
But Bernadette’s body lay in a raw grave for 30 years. And not on it signs of neither decomposition nor mummification. That is, it is imperishable. Her features have been preserved completely, her hands have not changed at all, even the nails look perfect. Without a doubt, a miracle. But only for believers. For scientists, there is nothing sacred. Having spent studies, they found that the perfect preservation of the body It’s not explained by a miracle, but by ordinary human intervention, namely, wax, which was applied in a thin layer on dried Bernadette’s face during the second exhumation, completely repeating it features.
And what about the hands and other parts of the body that are also preserved in perfect condition? Pundits and here found explanation. They believe that the relics of the real Saint Bernadette have long been stored in a nearby crypt (just in case), and for display in the glass coffin is just … a wax figure. In this case, perhaps only the face and hands. Everything else is hidden by clothing. AND now pilgrims from a respectful distance (since visitors close to the glass coffin with Bernadette’s “body”) watch the wax figure.
A photo from open sources
If you look closely at two photographs of Bernadette (shortly before death and these days), you might even think what kind of many years of “imperishable” existence, our heroine is even more prettier and transformed. Except that facial features are modern Bernadetta doesn’t coincide with the features of the same saint’s face, only 130 years ago.
It is noteworthy that all the saints were allowed to shoot in different camera angles: without coffins, clothes, etc. Everyone except Bernadette. Why? The answer seems obvious – the Catholic Church by all means ways to save a beautiful fairy tale about a young girl, which during life was the Mother of God herself and who after death was able to defeat the laws of nature, managed to save (and even transform) your body. She still attracts crowds pilgrims from all over the world and brings Catholic popularity faith.
Mikhail YURIEV
Time Climate
