Incorruptibility is a Catholic and Orthodox belief that divine intervention allows some human bodies (specifically saints and beati) to completely or partially avoid the normal process of decomposition after death as a sign of their holiness.
Incorruptibility is thought to occur even in the presence of factors which normally hasten decomposition, as in the cases of saints Catherine of Genoa, Julie Billiart and Francis Xavier.
In Christianity, the apostle Paul introduced the concept of the spiritual body (Koine Greek: sōma pneumatikos) in the New Testament (1 Corinthians 15:44), describing the resurrected body as "spiritual" (pneumatikos) in contrast to the natural (psychikos) body:
Christian teaching traditionally interprets Paul as comparing a resurrected body with a mortal body, saying that it will be a different kind of body; a "spiritual body", meaning an immortal body, or incorruptible body (15:53—54). In the Catholic Church, traditionally the resurrected body is called the "glorified body", and retained four characteristics: incorruptibility, subtlety, impassibility, and agility. The bodies of the damned are also raised incorrupt, but not glorified or free from suffering.
View the full Wikipedia page for Spiritual bodyBernadette Soubirous, SCN (/ˌbɜːrnəˈdɛt ˌsuːbiˈruː/; French: [bɛʁnadɛt subiʁu]; Occitan: Bernadeta Sobirós [beɾnaˈðetɔ suβiˈɾus]; 7 January 1844 – 16 April 1879), also known as Bernadette of Lourdes (religious name Marie-Bernarde), was a miller's daughter from Lourdes (Lorda in Occitan), in the department of Hautes-Pyrénées in France, and is best known for experiencing apparitions of a "young lady" who asked for a chapel to be built at the nearby cave-grotto. These apparitions occurred between 11 February and 16 July 1858, and the young lady who appeared to her identified herself as the "Immaculate Conception".
After a canonical investigation, Soubirous's reports were eventually declared "worthy of belief" on 18 February 1862, and the Marian apparition became known as Our Lady of Lourdes. In 1866, Soubirous joined the Sisters of Charity of Nevers at their convent in Nevers where she spent the last years of her life. Her body is said by the Catholic Church to remain internally incorrupt. The grotto where the apparitions occurred became a major pilgrimage site and Marian shrine known as the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, attracting around five million pilgrims of all denominations each year.
View the full Wikipedia page for Bernadette Soubirous