Pope Francis, who died on Easter at 88 after suffering a cerebral stroke, left numerous written requests with respect to his funeral, such as the simplification of the rite or the sobriety of the exposure of his body. Also requested to be buried in the Santa María la Mayor Basilica in a Simple tomb and Not be embalmed. But Francisco was not the only one who made this type of demand. Pope Pius XII also requested that they not embalmed his body, but this decision had consequences: His body exploded inside the coffin during the funeral.
Before his death, the pontiff Pius XII asked that his body be subjected to a experimental process to keep it because I didn’t want to be embalmed. The method-which was carried out by Riccardo Galeazzi-Lisi, his header-consisted of submerging the body in a Mixture of aromatic herbs and then wrap it with cellophane. However, instead of preserving the body, this process accelerated the decomposition of it.
While the funeral rites continued, the body of the Holy Father began to swell a unbearable smellwhich is why the Vatican decided to close the coffin until the burning chapel ended. But the gases produced by the body after dying continued to concentrate to the point that his chest exploded. His body took a bluish green color and his limbs turned black. He also lost his nose and his features distorted themselves.
To try to make the body endure as much as possible until the day of the burial, The Vatican decided to tie him and place a wax mask on the face. Finally, after having died because of heart failure, Pius XII was buried in the Vatican caves. The doctor, meanwhile, was fired, expelled from the College of Physicians and banished for the life of the Holy See.
Pío XII – born in Rome on March 2, 1876 with the name of Eugenio María Guiseppe Giovanni Pacelli – died on October 9, 1958 after having been in command of the Catholic Church for almost twenty years. He was chosen In a conclave that he himself presided over As Camarlengo of the Cardinal College and took his religious name in honor of the Pope of whom he was advisor: Pius XI.
