#incorrupt

[thevirginofthelillies]

The incorrupt body of St. Bernadette Soubirous, Nevers, France

[exossibus]

INCORRUPT

They buried Brother Mateo in the old habit: rough wool, worn rope, wooden crucifix heavy on his chest.

He had lived well. Quiet, obedient. No great sermons, no scandals. He tended the sacristy and hummed when he worked. When he died, they wept the way you do when a candle burns down clean. No drama. Just silence.

They placed his body in the crypt beneath the monastery, where the walls sweat and the dust smells like old books. They chanted. They prayed. They sealed the door.

But two days later, Brother Laurent went down with the incense and came back pale.

“He’s…” he said, breathless. “He hasn’t changed.”

The body was untouched.

No bloating. No smell. No slackness in the jaw.

The eyes were still closed. The lips, still gently parted—as if about to speak.

The abbot said, “We’ll wait.”

But after a week, the news spread.

The faithful came quietly at first.

A woman with a rosary pressed her forehead to the stone. A seminarian cried and claimed he felt the floor thrum with warmth. A deacon touched the crypt wall and said he smelled violets.

The abbot allowed a single viewing.

They opened the door.

Inside: Brother Mateo, hands folded, eyes shut, still as sleep. The habit had not wrinkled. The crucifix still gleamed. And the flesh—unchanged.

Not mummified. Not embalmed.

Fresh.

Perfect.

They called the diocese.

Doctors came. The bishop followed.

Tests were taken. Photos snapped.

The bishop touched the corpse and muttered something low. “He’s incorrupt,” he said. “By the grace of God.”

The monks prayed. The people sang.

But Brother Laurent began to lose sleep.

“He’s not cold,” he said.

Visitors increased.

The hallway to the crypt filled with candles and petitions. Someone began calling him Saint Mateo. Someone else claimed he healed her arthritic hands.

Brother Laurent stayed silent.

But one night, he sat in the chapel, trembling.

“I saw the body breathe,” he said.

The abbot forbade him from speaking further.

“You are tired,” he said. “Rest. Fast. Pray.”

But more monks began to notice… things.

The habit changed positions.

The crucifix shifted.

A fly landed on the cheek—and was gone the next moment, as if swallowed.

The brothers began avoiding the crypt.

But the faithful came anyway.

They pressed notes into the cracks of the door.

They whispered against the stone.

They begged.

And sometimes, at night, the door would be found ajar.

Only by a crack.

Only wide enough to let something out.

Brother Laurent stopped coming to meals.

He would not speak. Only muttered prayers. Always in Latin. Sometimes in Greek.

They found him one morning outside the crypt, kneeling. The door was open. The candles were all melted flat. He had scratched something into the floor with his own fingernails.

“Not a saint. Not sleeping. Watching.”

The abbot ordered the crypt sealed again.

They stacked the bricks. They anointed the mortar.

They chanted and swung incense until the smoke stung their eyes.

They thought it would end.

Then the bell rang.

Once. Twice.

At 3:12 in the morning.

There was no one on the rope.

⸻

They found Brother Mateo’s crucifix in the chapel.

Not laid gently.

Dropped.

The wood was wet.

The bishop returned with holy oil and quiet fury.

He descended into the crypt with two others.

The wall was torn down again.

Inside: Brother Mateo.

Still whole.

Still untouched.

But the mouth was wider now.

Too wide.

And there was something behind the teeth.

The bishop said nothing.

He left before nightfall.

They sealed the crypt again.

No chants.

No incense.

Just stone and nails and silence.

Some say it’s still incorrupt.

Some say he still looks fresh.

But no one has seen him in years.

And no one goes down there.

Not anymore.

But sometimes, during Mass, the candles flicker for no reason.

And once—only once—a brother swore he heard a voice during the homily.

“That’s not what I said.”

[thesynaxarium]

Today we celebrate the Venerable Alexander of Svir. Saint Alexander is considered one of the holiest saints of recent times in the Russian Orthodox Church, being the only person since Abraham to have the Holy Trinity appear to him in the form of Three Angels. His life of holiness, prayer, asceticism and strict fasting allowed the Lord to grant him many gifts, including wonder working. His completely incorrupt relic lies at his monastery in Svir. May he intercede for us all + #saint #alexander #svir #russia #russian #saintalexander #trinity #holytrinity #abraham #threeangels #angel #angels #apparition #incorrupt #relic #relics #monastery #ascetic #asceticism #prayer #love #God #orthodox #saintoftheday (at Leningrad Oblast) https://www.instagram.com/p/Ch2921iPxN6/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[portraitsofsaints]

Happy Feast Day St. Emily de Vialar

1797-1856 Feast Day: June 17 Patronage: Single women Saint Emily de Vialar was born in France, to the physician of Louis XVIII. She cared for the children and sick of the town, trying to repair the harm done by the French Revolution, while also caring for her widowed father. In 1835, St. Emily and 26 women took religious vows, calling themselves the sisters of St. Joseph “of the Apparition.” ( referring to The angel Gabriels’ telling St. Joseph to flee to Egypt) By the time St. Emily died, 42 foundations were established all over the world. Four years after her death her body was found incorrupt.

[anastpaul]

Saint of the Day – 23 September – St Pio of Pietrelcina O.F.M.Cap. – Priest, Religious Friar, Stigmatist, Mystic, Confessor.  Born Francesco Forgione, he was given the name of Pius (Italian: Pio) when he joined the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin.  (25 May 1887 at Pietrelcina, Benevento, Italy – 23 September 1968 in San Giovanni Rotondo, Foggia, Italy of natural causes).  Beatified 2 May 1999 and Canonised on 16 June 2002 by Pope John Paul II at Rome, Italy.   Patronages – Civil defense volunteers, Adolescents, Pietrelcina, Stress relief, Italy and Malta.   Attributes  – Stigmata, Capuchin habit.  His incorrupt relics lie at his home in San Giovanni Rotondo.

Francesco was born to Mamma Peppa and Grazio Forgione in the little town called Pietrelcina, in Southern Italy, during the month of flowers, 25 May 1887.   He was fifth of eight children.   His Mamma Peppa confided he was different from other boys:  “he was never impolite or misbehaved”.   He had celestial visions and diabolical oppressions from the age of five years and he saw and spoke with Jesus and Our Lady and with his Guardian Angel but unfortunately this heavenly life was interwoven with hell and with the devil.

In 1903, discipline and ill health had been woven together to crown the youth of Pio. Doctors diagnosed him as consumptive and were sure he would die.   Strong in spirit Pio received the Capuchin Franciscan garb initialling religious life and therefore;  Novitiate twith its intense study, prayer, austerity, penance and finally vows of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience.

In 1909, St Pio is back at home at Pietrelcina because of his illness, at his mother’s side.   Now another intense chapter of extraordinary life opens with mystical afflictions an invisible stigmata and terrible battles with devils that wanted to destroy him began.   Yet, “It all happened here”, he said, his whole future was prepared here.   On August 10, 1910, he was ordained a Priest in the Cathedral of Benevento.

In 1916 in the church of San Giovanni Rotondo, soon to become his Jerusalem, with the mystical and historical calvary of Gargano, where he was soon recognised as the “saintly friar” by the locals.   Here he became a “victim of love”, by the reparation for sin, of the many crowds who flocked to him, to venerate his bleeding wounds of his hands and feet. This very important event occurred in Father Pio’s life on 20 September 1918, while he was praying in front of a Crucifix located in the choir in the little old church, when a strange personage like an angel, gave him the stigmata.   Those stigmata have been remained opened and bleeding for fifty years.   This was one of the reasons for which doctors, scientists, journalists and common people have gone to San Giovanni Rotondo for years, in order to meet the “Saintly friar “.

In a letter dated 22 October 1918, Padre Pio told his experience of crucifixion:  “… What I can tell you about my crucifixion?   My God!   What a confusion and what humiliation I feel when I try to show somebody else what you have done in me, your unworthy creature!   It was the morning of the 20th. (September) and I was in choir, after the celebration of the Holy Mass, when a rest, similar to a sweet sleep surprised me.   All the inside and external senses, as well as the same faculties of the soul were in an indescribable quiet.   There was a deep silence around me and inside me;  a peace overcame me and then it all happened in a flash I felt abandonment with the complete loss of all senses.   While all this was taking place, I saw before me a mysterious appearance, similar to the one I had seen on 5 August, differing only because His hands, feet and side were dripping blood.   The sight of Him frightened me:  what I felt at that moment is indescribable.   I thought I would die and would have died if the Lord hadn’t intervened and strengthened my heart, which was about to burst out of my chest!  The appearance disappeared and I became aware that my hands, feet and side were pierced and were dripping with blood.   You can imagine the torment that I experienced then and that I am almost experiencing every day.   The wound of the heart assiduously bleeds, particularly from the evening of Thursday until Saturday.   My God, I die of pain, torment and confusion that I feel in the intimate of the soul.   I am afraid I’ll bleed to death!   I hope that God listens to my moans and withdraws this humiliation from me… “

He usually woke up in the early morning (we could say at night) in order to get himself ready for the Holy Mass.   In fact, every morning, at 4 a.m. there were always hundreds and sometimes even a thousand people waiting for the door of the church to open.   After the Mass he used to spend most time of his day in prayer and confessions.   After fifty years of stigmata he died 23 September 1968, thus he closed his mission of the Heart’s desire, with the real cross and the real crucifixion of his body.

From every part of the world, the believers went to this stigmatised priest, to get his powerful intercession from God.   Fifty years he lived in the prayer, in the humility, in the suffering and in the sacrifice of the cross, he lived his love.  Padre Pio had two initiatives in two directions:   the vertical one toward God, with the constitution of the “Groups of prayer”, the horizontal one toward his suffering community, with the construction of a modern hospital: “House Relief of the Suffering.”

In September 1968, thousands of devotees and Padre Pio’s spiritual children were assembled in conference at St Giovanni Rotondo to commemorate together the 50 anniversary of the stigmata and to celebrate the fourth international conference of the Prayer Groups.   Nobody would have imagined that at 2:30 a.m., 23 September, 1968 we the earthly life of Father Pio of Pietrelcina would end.

Focusing too much on Padre Pio’s marvels and mystical phenomena gives the false impression that he led an abnormal life, more angelic than human.   While he opened our eyes to heavenly realities, he kept his feet firmly planted on the earth, enduring and enjoying ordinary things, as other human beings did.   Today we mainly imagine him as a wonder-working stigmatic with miracles flowing from his wounded hands.   But the people who knew him, while they appreciated his marvels, loved him more for his earthiness, his compassion, his gentleness, his humour and his common sense.   For instance, when he was asked his opinion of a thief who had stolen valuable gems from a church’s painting of the Virgin, he responded, “What do you want me to say? That poor young man was probably hungry and went to Our Lady to say: ‘Of what use are these jewels to you?’   And probably Our Lady gave them to him.   Silly him to get caught with the goods in his pocket.”

Padre Pio embraced his own great suffering as his personal share in the suffering of Christ.   But he could not endure the suffering of others.   Hundreds came to Our Lady of Grace hoping for a healing and he knew that only some of them would receive a miraculous cure.   His compassion for the many who would not be healed led him to work for the establishment of a world-class hospital at San Giovanni Rotondo that would serve the poor.   From the outset he planned to name it “House for the Relief of Suffering.”

Padre Pio worked against all odds to achieve his goal of creating a medical center.  He faced obstacles that would have deflated the enthusiasm of lesser men.   How does a monk vowed to poverty build a hospital without any money in an impoverished town situated on an inaccessible mountain?   Padre Pio did it by faith and with a small army of friends.   His associates helped him raise money, design and construct the buildings and assemble a top-shelf medical staff.   When the House for the Relief of Suffering opened in 1956, many observers believed it could not survive because of its location on a desolate mountain.   However, Padre Pio believed otherwise.   When he inaugurated the first building, he said, “Now House for the Relief of Suffering is a small seed,but it will become a mighty oak, a hospital that is a small city and a center for clinical studies of international importance.”   That prophecy has come true. Today the hospital is a thriving centre whose expanding complex resembles a little city.

Padre Pio’s practical compassion and entrepreneurial genius defy those who might be tempted to dismiss him as a medieval weirdo.  Instead he stands for all as a modern icon of God’s inexhaustible love for human beings and his determination to rescue us at all costs.

(via AnaStpaul – Breathing Catholic)

[dramoor]

“Jesus Christ is the only One to love.”

~Blessed Marie de Jésus Deluil Martiny

(Image of the incorrupt body of Blessed Marie via Vultus Christi)

[thesynaxarium]

Today we celebrate the Venerable Alexander of Svir. Saint Alexander is considered one of the holiest saints of recent times in the Russian Orthodox Church, being the only person since Abraham to have the Holy Trinity appear to him in the form of Three Angels. His life of holiness, prayer, asceticism and strict fasting allowed the Lord to grant him many gifts, including wonder working. His completely incorrupt relic lies at his monastery in Svir. May he intercede for us all + #saint #alexander #svir #russia #russian #saintalexander #trinity #holytrinity #abraham #threeangels #angel #angels #apparition #incorrupt #relic #relics #monastery #ascetic #asceticism #prayer #love #God #orthodox #saintoftheday (at Svir, Leningradskaya Oblast', Russia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CTKtLIujDkJ/?utm_medium=tumblr

[thesynaxarium]

Today we celebrate the Venerable Alexander of Svir. Saint Alexander is considered one of the holiest saints of recent times in the Russian Orthodox Church, being the only person since Abraham to have the Holy Trinity appear to him in the form of Three Angels. His life of holiness, prayer, asceticism and strict fasting allowed the Lord to grant him many gifts, including wonder working. His completely incorrupt relic lies at his monastery in Svir. May he intercede for us all + #saint #alexander #svir #russia #russian #saintalexander #trinity #holytrinity #abraham #threeangels #angel #angels #apparition #incorrupt #relic #relics #monastery #ascetic #asceticism #prayer #love #God #orthodox #saintoftheday (at Свирь) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEfCBEYpEFU/?igshid=1abxr64y7iflf