Astounding, uncanny, miraculous facts? Dr. Gerhard Kaiser says: 'Wherever the course of events can be reconstructed, signs of miraculous activity must be almost certainly excluded.'
These are the scientific facts: Bodily reactions are not uncommon after death. Cessation of heart beat does not influence all cells simultaneously. Whole groups of cells survive it for several hours. Spermatozoa continue mobile for at least twenty-eight hours after the death of the organism. A well-known phenomenon are the (uncanny)
sighs given by dead people when they are dressed for their last journey and moved in the process.
Survivors are often horrified when they observe changes in position caused by heat. Suspended animation? When a pregnant woman dies, the foetus can be expelled from the body by putrefying gases in the coffin. Suspended animation? No, a chemical and physical process.
Normally the process of decomposition begins very soon after the definite signs of death (coldness of the corpse, rigor mortis, cessation of heart beat and breathing, reddish blue spots on the skin, a negative curve on the instruments). A bubble-like raising of the skin and formation of gas - often with considerable pressure in the corporeal orifices soon ensues.
The process of putrefaction is mainly caused by air. It carries bacteria, and oxygen sets the chemical conversion process in motion. Moisture and warmth accelerate the decomposition and finally, under ground, worms and insects complete the work of destruction. Ants can lay a skeleton
bare in three days! Generally the abdomen dissolves in three or four years, fat in the bones much later. Brain cells and skin on the head last for decades. The protein in the bones lasts for a hundred years or more.
Ultimately all that survives of a dead person buried in a normal grave is the skeleton.
Saintly men who have already demonstrated their singularity in their lifetime by spectacular deeds, are obviously not buried in normal graves or tombs. That is the vital premise from which Dr. Kaiser comes to his convincing conclusions.
The most important prerequisite for the preservation of a corpse is keeping bacteria away. If their presence can be stopped or lessened, the process of putrefaction is slowed down considerably. But how can the environment be influenced to decrease or prevent the access of destructive bacteria?
Dry air and constant strong draughts produce a natural mummification which preserves parts of the body with little flesh on them (ears, nose, fingers, toes).
Cold water flowing in the vicinity of the corpse keeps the temperature down and drives flies and insects away.
This preservative bacteria-reducing cold can be increased by ice. (Bodies have been recovered from glaciers completely undamaged after many years.)
Forensic medicine has histories of corpses found in pitch lakes that were discoloured, but perfectly preserved.
Also well known are bog corpses which are preserved by humus acids resistant to putrefaction. Carbon dioxide prevents the coagulation of the blood. In cases of carbon dioxide poisoning blood can flow from cuts long after death.
Metal coffins cause the formation of metallic salts, which slow down decomposition for as much as ten years. Salts in the earth (arsenic from the iron sources), or sea salts in combination with the dry climate accounted for the hundreds of skulls buried during the Inca period which were found with undamaged flesh and all their hair during excavations in the Lima region. The preservation of bodies by treating them with natron, asphalt and cedar products was known in Egypt from the third century B.C. (Today it is simpler. We mummify with formalin, a germ-killing medium. In many American Memorial Parks relatives can pull their beautifully made-up dead out of compartments and contemplate them in all their living beauty. ... Death in Hollywood!)
Dr. Kaiser has no doubt that the majority of incorruptible saints were buried in such conditions.
The survival of Rose of Lima's flesh was unquestionably due to salts. (The nun, who remained undamaged for eighteen months, lay in the same salt-bearing earth in which the Inca skulls were found.)
St. Clara of Monte Falco was mummified by dry air and found with an 'exceptionally beautiful face'.
Her shorn hair hung above her as a relic 'apparently dried out and showing the face of the crucified Christ'.
The 'smoked Parson of St. Thomas' in lower Austria was rendered incorruptible by chemicals - tar products.
Was it pure chance that saintly people found their burial place in surroundings so favourable to their preservation? There is evidence that suitable methods were used to help preserve the bodies of saints
'in the flesh'. Capuchins in Italy and Moravians laid out the burial chambers of their monasteries in such a way that a constant draught of dry air swept through them. Dr. Kaiser's supposition that the bodies of many saints were not only embalmed with essences, sweet-smelling oils, salves and aromas to drive away the smell of death, but also because the preservative effect of 'cosmetics' was known, can be accepted as a certainty.