Nevers is a small city in central France, a charming old city, which is also a Roman Catholic parish in France.
For devout Catholics, Nevers has a saint worthy of worship. The saint has been dead for nearly 150 years, but still resembles a lifelike Sleeping Beauty. Her flesh does not decay and remains an unsolved mystery.
This "holy woman" is Bernadette, a Catholic saint in France, born in January 1844, who died at the age of 35 and was buried in 1879.
Before she was canonized as a saint, the Catholic Church exhumed her body three times for examination, and many doctors and priests witnessed the excavation.
Surprisingly, however, her body was found to be undamaged in the slightest. The skeleton is well preserved, the muscles are strong and elastic, the skin is soft, and the internal organs are intact, which seems to be the same as ordinary people.
Today, she is lying peacefully in the glass coffin of the Nevers Catholic Church, like a quiet sleeping beauty, waiting for the call of the miracle. Her body attracted Catholic churches from all over the world to pay homage to her. It has also attracted many scientists to study.
Why was her flesh able to remain incorruptible? Is she really a mortal saint?
Bernadette is a rural girl in Lourdes, France. When she was 14 years old, she dreamed of the Virgin Mary and has dreamed many times since.
One day in 1858, Bernadette and two girls went up the hill. Passing through a cave, she saw a very beautiful woman appear in front of her, and smiled at her, making a gesture of praise for her prayer. Curiously, neither of the companions in the industry saw it.
After a few days, she felt a mysterious force calling her to the cave. She told the people around her about the idea, and everyone thought she was fantasizing.
She had to go alone. There she saw the beautiful woman again, and kept talking to her. The woman asked her, "If you will not come here for fifteen consecutive days, I promise you happiness, but after death." ”
She really came fifteen times. On several occasions, her mother came with her, but when she reached the mouth of the cave, she could not see anything. Mother only saw Bernadette as if she were muttering to herself, her face filled with happiness.
Her mother recalled: "Bernadette's face reminded me of the rising sun, though out of our sight, already shining on the top of the hill opposite. In the same way, her face was suddenly radiant, illuminated by the light of God; and this wonderful reflection convinced us that there was a center of light that we could not see. ”
Soon Bernadette entered the convent of Nevers and became a nun. She was rumored to have been frail and sickly, but she was often encouraged by those around her. Over time, many Catholics around her considered her a saint.
After her burial, the Catholic Church posthumously recognized her as a saint and exhumed her body three times for examination, which confirmed this. Because after decades, the remains of the saint have not changed in the slightest, which is surprising.
One monk involved in the excavation wrote: "This is incredible. The virgin's skin is soft and elastic, and her face is lifelike. Although the rosary beads she held in her hands were rusty, she was still intact. ”
Of course, many scientists in Europe do not agree with the sage's claims. They tried to unravel the secret, even though it was resented by many believers.
Italian anomaly investigator Paulo is one of them. Paul believed that Bernadette's body must have undergone some kind of embalming treatment, that the church had fooled the people,
According to the laws of science, once the heartbeat of a person stops, the blood will stagnate, and the cells in the body will die rapidly due to lack of oxygen.
The human body usually begins to decay within a few days of death. Microbes inside the human gut begin to break down the abdomen from within the body and spread throughout the body within a few weeks. After a year, only the skeleton and teeth may remain.
Paul speculates that the virgin's body is not decomposing, and it may be that saponification occurred, which could make the body radiant. Did Sleeping Beauty have this phenomenon?
The so-called saponification, is the body fat into a certain soap, is a wax-like viscous substance, they wrap the body, the corpse into corpse wax, to prevent the bacteria from decaying,
However, according to Bernadette's body study, neither dried to become a mummy, nor swollen and slippery due to saponification, it should not have occurred saponification.
The cross necklace on Bernadette's hand had been rusted, indicating that air and moisture had entered the coffin, but why was the body all right?
One doctor concluded: "Her hands interlaced on her chest looked so perfect, without the smell of decomposing corpses. On her beautiful hands, she held a string of rusty rosary beads. ”
Since it is not a corpse dried (mummified) or saponified, some scientists speculate that the corpse of the virgin, which may have been preserved in the church, is just a sculpture.
The so-called sculpture is a wax mold carved by a skilled master carver according to the appearance of the saint girl before. The material used should be so precious that it still has the texture of the skin.
While studying the literature, Paul discovered an interesting passage. This passage points out that during the third exhumation of the virgin's body, a mask was made from tassels.
So, lying in a church glass coffin, is it just a wax figure? This seems to explain why the necklace on his hand rusted and the body itself was unharmed.
But where did the real body go? During the three excavations of the virgin, there were many notes from priests and doctors present, all of which completely recorded that the saint's body was intact and her face was vivid.
What are these notes? All this seems to be an eternal mystery.
Countless people went to Nevers, France, to visit Sleeping Beauty and see her sleeping so peacefully with a smile on her face. This smile, like the Mona Lisa's smile, will always appeal to the world.
Behind the smile, what secrets are there, may never be clear.