Rosalia Lombardo was born on December 13, 1918 in Palermo – a 6 December 1920 she was gone. But famous is this girl who died from pneumonia, became only after death. Father Rosalia, hard surviving her death, turned to the famous embalmer Dr. Alfredo Salafi with a request to save his daughter’s body from smoldering. Burial of Rosalia Lombardo was one of the last in the history of the capuchin catacombs in Palermo.
The girl’s body has been resting in 1920 in a small church in Palermo. But the most amazing thing is not this at all, but the fact that after his death Rosalia … hasn’t changed at all. Thanks to the embalming technique Salafi – or something else – her body exhibited in a glazed coffin on a marble pedestal in the middle of the Holy Chapel Rosalia (the last point on the catacomb tourist route capuchins), preserved until the XXI century almost in its original form. Rosalia’s skin did not lose its natural color, the child seemed not dead, but asleep, which makes the Lombardo mummy nicknamed “Sleeping Beauty”.
A photo from open sources
Some argue that there is no miracle at all – and the thing is that the unique embalming technology allowed Rosalia’s body remains as it was at the time of death.
The description of the embalming procedure developed by Salafia was found in his manuscript archive by a paleopathologist from Messina Dario Piombino Mascali. Salafia replaced Rosalia Lombardo’s blood with liquid a composition of formalin disinfectant, an alcohol that promotes quick drying of the body, glycerin that protects the mummy from complete dehydration, antifungal salicylic acid and salts zinc, giving the body hardness. Formula: 1 part glycerol, 1 part of a saturated formalin solution of zinc vitriol and zinc chloride, 1 part of a saturated alcohol solution salicylic acid. After that, the girl’s body was placed in glass coffin.
However, modern scientists argue that neither this composition nor Salafia’s procedures do not explain such conservation Rosalia’s body – for 83 years, the girl’s body is so well preserved that even Rosalia’s fair hairs have not changed much. Whole absolutely everything – eyelashes, soft tissues of the body and even eyeballs bluish color, which is almost completely impossible. This The phenomenon attracts tourists from all over the world.
Since even scientists consider this an incredible miracle, all this while the body of the deceased Rosalia was under observation. Specialists claim that weak electrical pulses were detected, coming from the brain of a girl. The computer recorded two flashes lasting 33 and 12 seconds. This is only possible if the person is alive, similar outbreaks can be expected in a sleeping person, but not in a dead girl.
The monks tell that around a mysterious room in which a girl lies in a glass coffin, some wonders. In particular, the key to the wooden grill disappears, closing the entrance.
“35 years ago, the local caretaker went crazy overnight reason, says Father Donatello. – He claimed to have seen how Rosalia opened her eyes. It lasted only half a minute. After the body scientists examined and confirmed: something is wrong here. ” Local residents claim to have seen trembling eyelids and witnesses who heard that Rosalia was sighing. Although from a medical point of view view girl is dead.
The same monks claim that Rosalia’s body sometimes exudes the smell of wildflowers, lavender in particular. Explanation of these facts. neither scholars nor priests.
Experts say that this is simple, not completely mystical explanation. “This is just an optical illusion, produced by light falling on the face of the mummy at different angles in different hours, ”explained the catacomb ranger Dario Piombino Mascali.
He added that the girl’s eyelids were never tightly closed, thanks to which the illusion of opening and closing is created eye depending on the angle of incidence of sunlight.
A photo from open sources
Mummy Illusions
