The Materiality of Incorruption

From ‘Miraculous Bodies’ to ‘Bodies on Display’ in Nineteenth- and Twentieth- Centuries Italy

Abstract

This article examines incorrupt bodies in the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Italian Catholic context, focusing on the founders of new religious institutes. The aim is not to analyse the supernatural phenomenon itself but rather to understand the dynamics that led certain bodies to be perceived as religiously significant and thus displayed for veneration by the faithful. It identifies four key phases: (1) the legal and conceptual transformation of the deceased into religious objects; (2) the embodiment of the founder’s charisma and communal identity, creating ‘cultural capital’; (3) the canonisation process, including exhumations and examinations; and finally (4) the ‘making of incorruption’ that is the procedure aimed at publicly displaying the remains. The article concludes that the perception of miracles and the creation of beliefs surrounding them are more important than the state of preservation of the corpses. The cases analysed demonstrate that behind the display of incorrupt bodies lies not merely a presumed posthumous miracle but a social construction of religious meanings.