Incorruptibility:Incorrupt Bodies

Incorrupt relics
 of Anthony, John, and
 Eustathios at the Orthodox
 Church of the Holy
Spirit in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Incorruptibility is a Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox belief that supernatural (or Godly) intervention allows some human bodies (specifically saints) to avoid the normal process of decomposition after death as a sign of their holiness. Bodies that reportedly undergo little or no decomposition, or delayed decomposition, are sometimes referred to as incorrupt or incorruptible.
Although covert embalming is sometimes invoked to explain the incorruptibility,many instances remain largely unexplained. The incorruptibility may occur in the presence of factors that bolster decomposition, as in the cases of Catherine of Genoa, Julie Billiart or Francis Xavier.
Roman Catholicism

The body of Saint John
 Mary Vianney wearing a
wax mask, found to
be incorrupt by the
Catholic Church.
(b. 8 May 1786 – d. 4 August 1859).

In Roman Catholicism, if a body remains incorruptible after death, this is generally seen as a sign that the individual is a saint. Not every saint, however, is expected to have an incorruptible corpse. Although incorruptibility is recognized as supernatural, it is no longer counted as a miracle in the recognition of a saint.
Embalmed bodies were not recognized as incorruptibles. For example, while the body of Pope John XXIII remained in a remarkably intact state after its exhumation, Church officials quickly remarked that the body had been embalmed and additionally there was a lack of oxygen in his sealed triple coffin.
Incorruptibility is seen as distinct from the good preservation of a body, or from mummification. Incorruptible bodies are often said to have the odor of sanctity, exuding a sweet or floral, pleasant aroma.

Eastern Orthodox Church
To the Eastern Orthodox Church, Incorruptibility continues to be an important element for the process of glorification. An important distinction is made between natural mummification and what is believed to be supernatural incorruptibility. There are a great number of eastern Orthodox saints whose bodies have been found to be incorrupt and are in much veneration among the faithful.
Some of these are:

The body of Saint Virginia
 Centurione, found to be
incorrupt by the Catholic
Church.

• Saint Alexander of Svir — the incorrupt relics of the saint were removed from the Svir Monastery by the Bolsheviks on December 20, 1918 after several unsuccessful attempts to confiscate them. Finally,  he holy relics were sent to Petrograd's Military Medical Academy. There they remained for nearly eighty years. A second uncovering of St Alexander's relics took place in December 1997, before their return to the Svir Monastery.
• Saint Ioasaph of Belgorod — In 1918 the Bolsheviks removed Saint Ioasaph's relics from his shrine in the cathedral of the Holy Trinity at Belgorod, and for some seventy years their whereabouts remained unknown. In 1927 the cathedral itself was demolished. In the late 1980s the relics were discovered in Leningrad's Museum of Religion and Atheism, and on 16 September 1991 they were solemnly returned to the new Cathedral of the Transfiguration of Our Lord in Belgorod, in the presence of Patriarch Alexy II
• Anthony, John, and Eustathios
• Saint Dmitry of Rostov
• Saint Job of Pochayiv
• Saint John the Russian
• Saint Nectarios of Aegina
• Saint Parascheva of the Balkans
• Saint Seraphim of Sarov
• Saint Spyridon
• Dionysios of Zakynthos
• Gerasimus of Kefalonia