THE BODY OF ST. FRANCIS XAVIER AND THE GIFT OF INCORRUPTION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 19, 6 February 1891, Page 29

THE BODY OF ST. FRANCIS XAVIER AND THE GIFT OF INCORRUPTION.

yt (Bombay Catholic Examiner.') THAT God has conferred on the bodies of many saints in the Catholic Church the supernatural gift of incorruption is an incontestable fact. This wonderful gift, however, admits, as all supernatural charismata, of various kinds and degrees. We find that it appears under more or less counteracting circumstances, and is, so to say, tested or brought to light by them, as in the case of the body of St. Francis, which was immediately after his death placed in quicklime, and was not affected by it. We see it continued for a longer or shorter period of duration, accompanied by more or less marvellous qualities, such as flexibility of the members, softness of the flesh, the presence of blood in the veins, whiteness of colour or other appearances, fresh wonders in themselves, such as a permanent exhalation of delightful fragrance and a manifestation of healing power and the like. The many bodies of saints preserved are as many examples, from which can be proved what has been stated above. Let us select only a few examples. The body of St. Catherine of Genoa is perfectly dry and hard, whereas that of St. Zi k a, the holy servantmaid, is comparatively soft and supple. Her body is kept with great respect in St. Frigidian's Church at Lucca. It is said that if the habit with which St. Zita is covered be lifted, her arms, even a little above the wrists, would be seen to be gui c white, and that it is exposure to the air that has changed the colour of her face, her hands, and her feet. Blood seems to be in her veins. This is also the case in the remarkably preserved body of St. Clare of Monte Falco. The visitor is greatly struck by perceiving the large vein in her foot standing out, apparently full of blood. The condition of her body is certainly marvellous ; but it may be regarded as surpassed by that of St. Catherine of Bologna. A priest travelling through Italy speaking of her says the following :— ■" Her sanctuary 1 visited oa my way back to England from Rome in spriog 1850, and I had cot the company of any of my fellow-students there. I reached Bologna by diligence oa a Suoday morning, and when a fellow-traveller by the same conveyance declared his intention of going to see the Marionettes, I started off •with my casscck over my arm, hoping to say Mass in the Chapel of St. Catherine. I went up to the first man I saw in the pitzza and I asked him kindly to tell me where I could find Santa Caterina di Bologna. 'La Santa !' he called out, indignant that in her own city she should require to be more fully nam<id. I followed his directions, made my way into the cbuicb.and mindful of the lesson I had received in the piazza, I asked in the sacristy whether I might say Mass at the altar of la Santa. The vestments were given me, and I followed the server into the church, till he brought me to a tr-.nsept altar. I did not knuw in the least what to expect, and fully thought that St. Catherine was reposing at full length beneath the altar, and that after Mass I should be allowed to tea her. I was arrauping my chalice for Mass, woen I noticed that above the altar-card was a large oval opening or window, barred with gilt iron bars, wi h on the other side of it a light red silk curtain. As it caught my eye, I heard the curtain rings run back, and there I stood face to face with St. Catherine. " I have seldom been more startled, and it certainly was not without reason. In the room beyond the transept, exactly opposite to the altar and facing towards it, St. Catherine was sitting up in her chair— the only dead body I ever saw net lying at full length. It was a very moving thing to say one's Mass there, and whtn±ver one raised one's eyes to see the calm figure of the Saint, sitting like a queen on the throne. . . . The Saint is said to be sitting up in her chair without support, not leaning tack ; if so, it is very wondeiful, for her hand is perfectly flexible. To that I cau testify, for they said to me, ' You are a priest, take her hand in yours.' I did so, and raised it reverently to my lips." The miraculous pieservation cf the body of St. Francis is quite a special case on account of the counteracting circumstances under which it was inteired. For his friends placed it in a large cnebt, covered with quicklime, that the flesh might soon be consumed and the bones be taken to India. When ihe grave was opened after more than two months, the body was found entire, the flesh soft and fresh, a punctuie being made on the left knee the blood flowed as if in life, the body l.self exhaling a delicious pirfume. More than two hundred years after ihe death of Ue Saint, in 1774, when the Shrine was opened by order of King Johu IV,, in the presence of the Archbishop and the Maiquis Castelio, it was officially declared that no trace of corruption cuulci be found oa the body. The official report of the Ist January, 1782, utates that the body w a found to have dried up considerably. Since then it bas been opened for solemn exposition in 1859 and 1878. The chief surgeons and physicians of Goa declared officially that the body was found in the tame Btate as described in the report of 1782. Eye-witnesses who saw the body in 1878 and again now in 1890 declare that tLere a PP e ?r 8 n ° change, but that it is just as it waa in 1878. When in the presence of euch a true and genuine supernatural fact, supernatural at least according to the general belief, we ask ourselves, why did God work such wondeis ? we mu%t say, God's ways are inscrutable; yet we can affirm this without hesitatijn, that God intends to honour His saint. We may go a step further, and consider the gift of incoriuptioJ a special grace in reward for the ange.ic virtue of chastity. Whoever is acquainted with the life of St. Francis knows also that he was an an^el inhuman flesh, and that he spared no exertion?, do sacrifices to keep in itd lustre that virtue, which makes men like angela here on earth. Virginal pmity was not less conspicuous in him than apostolic zeal.