The incorrupt body of Blessed Anna Maria Taigi
These haunting images capture the eerily ‘incorruptible’ bodies of saints whose remains are displayed around Italy for the faithful to worship. While some are mere fragmented bones, other corpses appear staggeringly well-preserved despite dying hundreds of years ago.The saints supposedly belong to the world of the incorrupt – a Roman Catholic belief that Divine Intervention allows some humans to avoid decomposition after death as a sign of their holiness.
The ‘incorrupt’ body of St Paula Frassinetti in the Convento di Santa Dorotea, Rome. Paula’s body has been bathed in carbolic acid since her death in 1882
The wax effigy of St Carlo da Sezze. His relics are enshrined under the altar behind his effigy in the San Francesco d’Assisi a Ripa Grande church in Rome
The incorrupt body of St Pope Pius V, who died in 1572, lies in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome