After 15 years, the body of a buried Orthodox monk was found intact and undecayed. The bishop of the Fthiotida prefecture is calling it a "sign of God", although I am not entirely sure what the sign says, except maybe "why in the hell did you dig up this monk's body?" I know I wouldn't mind an answer to that question.
Supposedly the church is not intending to make the preserved monk, Vissarion Korkoliakos, a saint just yet, and they aren't calling for pilgrims to flock to the body. Apparently church officials were trying to play down the incident, and we all know flashing "signs of God" and calling in medical examiners are sure ways to keep something under wraps.
While I am certain, in my lack of faith, that there is a proper scientific explanation for the phenomenon, four doctors and the Athens coroner cannot adequately explain the preservation, and are calling it a unique case, which is doctor speak for "We have no friggin' idea."
9 comments:
did he kill himself by drinking formaldehyde?
i will surely slide down the ladder for that one...
Considering that many bodies haven't decomposed after 3 years in Athens cemeteries due to overcrowding, are they candidates for sainthood as well?
LOL Mel, I love your blog! :)
In Meteora, they have a whole room full of monk skulls and bones, because they apparently dig up the dead bodies after several years of decay, and then display the skeletons to warn other monks of their mortal end. It's seriously creepy, but not as creepy as a dead body that won't follow the course of nature. Anyway, maybe that's why they dug him up.
Have you read the Brothers Karamazov? There's a scene where the youngest brother gets all upset when the body of his beloved priest friend starts to smell several days after death. Apparently, he thought Father Zosima was so saintly that his body would emit a "sweet" smell. I think this is REALLY creepy.
Hello,
I hope I'm not telling you what you already know, but digging up the bones is part of the whole death/burial "process" here. Sorry if this is gross, but what I know (from our xwpio basically) is that because families have one or two spots in a cemetery, and the entire extended family needs to go in there when their time comes, after 3 years (or is it 5?) there is a ceremony and the bones are dug up (they have theoretically decomposed by now), washed in wine and then placed at the foot of the family grave in an - I want to use the word "ossokubwtio" (literally bone-container) but that may be our village's pronunciation. If the flesh hasn't decomposed yet they go back in for another couple of years. I have never been to one of these bone-digging-up ceremonies to tell you exactly but maybe your husbands will know?
Katerina
Katerina, you are absolutely right. That is the reason I have heard as well. Space is limited in a small country, folks.
In general, the whole death/burial process here can seem a bit creepy to foreigners. I remember when my grandfather died, it was an open casket funeral, and I nearly ran out of the church when I was told that as part of the ceremony I was expected to lean over and kiss his body's forehead. But I did it. And you know what? Afterwards I cried and cried, but of all my grandparents' deaths, his is the only one that I have been able to truly accept and absorb. It was as if, by touching the corpse, I was able to realise that the 'soul' or whatever the essence which had made him my grandfather was, was truly gone.
Similarily, all the traditions associated with death in Greece - and there are many more than just the digging up of the bones - serve both a symbolic purpose, and were designed to ease the pain of those left behind. So they're really not as creepy as they seem, but rather helpful and healing.
There are also a whole bunch of religious reasons for the traditions of course. It is believed that while decomposed flesh remains on the bones, the soul has not been able to find peace/reach heaven. So if, when they dig up a loved one, the body has not decomposed completely, they must perform a whole lot more religious rituals to help it on its way, before burying it again to have another go at reaching paradise, or something along those lines.
As for the saints, however, it's a whole different story.
One of the most clear signs in the orthodox church that someone was a saint is if their bodies are not decomposed when they are dug up. And no, they don't mean 'only partially decomposed', so all those poeple in Athens cemetaries don't count. They mean 'perfectly preserved' - as in, like the day they were buried. It is commonly believed that saints' bodies, or even just bones, give off a sweet smell, like that of myrrh. Just more proof of sainthood.
All this info thanks to a religious girl I work with.
And all a bunch of hocus pocus if you ask me, and I too hope I'm not telling you all something you don't already know and ruining a good joke - but there you go! It's rather interesting when you learn the facts.
Actually, I did know (although I don't generally approve) of the whole every three years dig up the grave thing. But I wasn't sure if it applied to monks and since this guy was dug up after 15 years I wasn't sure what was going on. Maybe they just kept digging him up every 3 years to check his status and were finally convinced he was not going to decay.
Still, I knew the basics, not all the extras you girls filled me in with, so that was all quite interesting. Apparently my husband and I just don't spend enough time talking about corpses for me to have gotten all this info, lol.
To all those atheists:
This is a miracle. Full stop.
For those that don't know there has been some of these incedents before in history like when the prohpet Daniel's body was uncovered due to a flood and his body was found fully preserved the people of those times seeing this and knowing this as a sign of closeness to god buried the body in the cover of night after digging thirteen graves in different areas so that people don't know where he is buried and start worshiping him instead of god.
also there are cases of this in South Africa and india where there are shrines of holy men who where found dead in the positions of prayer and these shrines where built around them, strange things happen near these shrines for instance, some people place fruit by the shrine and the side of the fruit facing the shrine does not decompose.
this is the natural state of the friends of God.
unexplained scientifically but spiritually makes sence
an anonymous spiritual dude
Post a Comment