Wednesday, October 13, 2010

The Mystery Of St. Bernadette's Body Continues To Confound


One of the greatest unexplained mysteries of all time is the body of Sister Bernadette Soubirous, which doesn't seem to decompose after 131 years. The body is on display by the Catholic Church as one of the greatest miracles of all time, and defies any scientific explanation. Although the nun died at the very young age of 35 in 1879, the body still looks fresh today. The body had actually been exhumed several times between 1909 and 1925, and what was found was a shockingly well preserved body that seems to defy normal decomposition.


In 1928, a doctor's report found the heart nearly normal in composition, and remarked in his official report that this didn't seem to be a "natural phenomenon" of any sort. It was an amazing medical discovery that defied explanation.


Bernadette Soubirous was born a sickly child who caused a world stir with the amazing phenomenon of her visions of Mary, the mother of Jesus at a rocky grotto in Lourdes, France. Strangely, the spring water that flowed at this site appears to have healing powers, although no scientific explanation could find a reason for this. The sick of the world travel to Lourdes, and often leave crutches and wheelchairs behind as they seem to be miraculously healed by the water at the shrine.


In 1943, popular actress Jennifer Jones played Bernadette in THE SONG OF BERNADETTE, back when respect for religious oriented films was much higher in the old Hollywood. This film was acclaimed as a great film by both Catholics and non-Catholics alike as a great faith inspiring film.


In Nevers, France the body of Bernadette is still on display and continues to awe many religious pilgrims each year as an unexplained miracle.


In Fatima, Portugal a similar event of three children viewing visions of Mary resulted in some awesome future prophesy messages. The first message dealt with a vision of Hell, and souls floating among these flames, while the second message dealt with how to avoid Hell. The third message was kept secret by the Catholic Church until June 2000, and contained some amazing future predictions of the rise of Soviet Union creating a long period of wars and religious persecutions. Reportedly, the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II was also predicted, as well as the current sexual abuse scandal, all of which were supposed to act as a warning to the church to avoid these sins.


In more modern times as society becomes more secular and miracles far more scarce, some of these older unexplained spiritual events are truly awesome and make for great vacation spots to travel to.