eish wrote: ↑Wed 10 April 2024 11:45 amSavaBeljovic wrote: ↑Wed 10 April 2024 10:35 amIncorruption can be a punishment too, people forget.
Not only can it be, but this is the default interpretation in the absence of some physical cause of failure to decompose (like bog bodies).
As I have it--and this comes from WO sources so take that as you will--when a body is exhumed incorrupt it is normal in Orthodox countries to perform prayers for the forgiveness of sins and rebury it for a period before checking if it helped. It is taken as a sign that the earth would not accept the body because of unconfessed/unrepentant sins. A sign that the soul needs prayers.
Only in rare cases is incorruption taken as a mark of holiness, usually with a specific symbolism such as the ear of St. Chrysostom which is incorrupt where St. Paul whispererd his teachings. The people to whom this is applied are always those already believed to be saints for other reasons.
That's actually very interesting, I did not know that about the prayers for forgiveness of sins! With bog bodies, I studied those heavily when I was younger because how they come about is quite interesting, it's also rare for bog bodies to form due to the exactness of conditions.
With incorruption, I remember hearing about how the Romanian Church (historically? Currently?) will only canonize a Saint if their relics are incorrupt. But I do agree that incorruption shouldn't always be taken as a sign of Holiness, the Papists have "incorrupt Saints" (and I'm not talking about the Madame Toussad's reliquaries), we also have plenty of Saints whom we know are Saints that do not have incorrupt relics.