If you've ever explored a Roman Catholic basilica or cathedral in Europe, it is possible you may have encountered the “incorrupt" body of a saint on display. Throughout the church's long history, the bodies of many saints have been disinterred, often to move them to new, more prestigious burial sites. Occasionally, it has been found that a body apparently did not succumb to the usual forces of putrefaction, and such a seemingly divinely preserved corpse is deemed "incorruptible." The title is reserved for bodies that one would expect to rot naturally—in other words, embalmed corpses and bog bodies need not apply. Interestingly, though, incorruptibility does not imply that the body cannot subsequently rot. Many holy corpses that were initially found preserved are now skeletons or are in some state of decomposition. Although such a discovery was traditionally considered a miracle (especially if the body also had a floral "odor of sanctity"), plausible scientific explanations and the possibility of lost embalming records have led the church to revise its doctrine on the matter, and incorruptibility alone is no longer treated as miraculous.
Truly miraculous or not, the incorrupt bodies of saints are considered holy relics and are treated with great esteem in both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Some are administered acid baths or other treatments to help sustain their incorruptibility. Many are encased in wax effigies or are given wax masks that represent their condition upon discovery. Others are reburied, and a metal, stone, or wax sculpture of the corpse is arrayed above or near the actual body. Some are displayed directly in glass caskets, usually with a thin wax layer over the skin. A number of incorrupt body parts, such as the tongue and jaw of St. Anthony of Padua or the heart of St. Vincent de Paul, are borne in special reliquaries. While their veneration is often associated with answered prayers and miracles, these relics also serve as visual reminders of the holy men and women that have lived and died in their faith and of the mortality that faces us all.