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Saints

Faith Q&A › Metropolitan Youssef › St. Mary and the Saints › Saints

The question

I know in our Orthodox Church, there are several bodies of saints that are still existing until today, which means that they didn't become bones. I also heard in a sermon, that the body of Pope Shenouda III was put in Wadi El Natroun where the inside of the earth is very salty and that's what preserves the bodies. I got confused. I thought that their bodies were preserved miraculously, since they are saints, not because there is salt inside the ground??? Please clarify.

The answer

The Natroun Valley is known to have nitric acid, but that is not the reason for the preservation of the bodies of some of the saints. When a saint's body is preserved, it is truly a miracle, and not the reason of the use of any kind of preservative or embalming practices. The reposed are laid to rest in crypts and not directly in the ground. There are not many cases in which it is known that the body of a particular pious person who reposed did not decay. If it was generalized, perhaps one could reach the conclusion that it is because of elements used in the burials.

Answered by His Eminence Metropolitan Youssef (opens in a new tab)

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