In real life, it is impossible to say that a person's body will not decay for many years after death, and even if it is soaked in potion, it cannot last for 143 years, right?
We have seen mummies in film and television dramas, heard countless legends in myths, and there are also legends in Chinese history that the corpses of Master Huineng of the Six Ancestors are incorruptible.
But in the history of France, there is really a little girl, from ordinary to admired by thousands of people, only because her body has been preserved for 143 years.
01The corpse worshipped by everyone
"The body has no odor, the hands are well preserved, and the facial features are obvious." In 1909, two French medical doctors stood next to a female corpse that had been buried for 30 years.
The metal cross inside the coffin and the rosary beads next to it have rusted, but the corpse has no signs of decay, which is not only a strange thing, but even now it is difficult to explain scientifically.
The name of the deceased was Bernadette, because even after 30 years of burial, the skin was still as smooth as before he was born, so many French pilgrims believed that this was a sign of God, and only the chosen saints and saints could get such immortality, and because of this, they began to worship Bernadette continuously.
"She's like a sleeping beauty in a fairy tale."
Every time they have seen Bernadette, they can't help but sigh, they can't believe that there is such a miracle in the world.
In 1919, in order to test Bernadette's "divinity" again, her body was moved to Rome and the coffin was opened, this time, although her skin color changed slightly, and there was some mold on her body, but it did not affect the fact that it was a perfect corpse, and it was not at all visible that it was a person who had been dead for more than 40 years.
"Could it have been broken on the first move?" Oh my God, sin. ”
This move instantly caused great public opinion in the world, and many people believed that the reason why Bernadette's body had mold this time was caused by the first move.
In 1925, the French medical community decided to move Bernadette's body one last time and to make a set of wax coffins for her that could be covered on the outside, so as not to cause the body to decay during the movement.
After making this wax figure set, the French side decided to officially enshrine Bernadette as a "saint" for everyone to worship.
Today, Bernadette's body has been preserved for nearly 150 years but still unharmed, it is reasonable to say that even the mummy must dry the water in the corpse to preserve for thousands of years, whether it is preserved or not has a lot to do with the surrounding geographical environment and natural environment.
So, what's the point of Bernadette? Why can she do it?
02 Poor small town girl who was questioned before she was born
Bernadette was born in 1844 in the small town of Lourdes in France, where her parents were the lowest workers in society at the time, supporting their poor families with basic labor for many years.
Bernadette was the eldest child in the family, and she had 8 younger siblings underneath. At that time, in order to raise these nine children, Bernadette's parents often moved everywhere, because they could not pay the rent, and they even lived in the government's temporary transformation of the dungeon.
As the eldest daughter, Bernadette often had to take care of her younger siblings, and the frequent lack of food and food also made the girl stunted from an early age, and for a long time, she was only one meter and four meters tall. Or rather, until she died and became an incorruptible saint, she was still one meter four.
Bernadette has always been an ordinary, ordinary girl who can no longer be ordinary, in addition to poverty, her biggest feature is that she is short.
Even though she looks beautiful and is at the same age as a flower, she does not have the ability to dress herself well and has been helping her parents take care of her siblings to share the pressure for them.
Poverty seems to be linked to all bad luck, because the family is poor and the epidemic of various respiratory diseases and cholera diseases, so Bernadette never grew taller after growing to one meter and four.
Her family did not allow her to be cured, and later she was weak and pitiful, and she could only rely on hard support until she could not continue to live and work.
Later, she could not keep up with the school's French class, and in the remote town, French was the common and common communication tool, while Bernadette could only communicate with people in household dialect or a few broken French.
Despite all the tortures life has done to her, this girl has always been grateful, warm and kind, she has a cheerful and helpful personality, always gives a positive and optimistic impression, everyone likes her, she has never complained about her parents, but has suffered and swallowed all this alone.
She thought that her life would pass like this, but she herself did not expect that an unexpected adventure would change her life.
In 1858, at the age of 14, Bernadette took her sister and another girl to collect firewood to prepare for cooking on a fire, and in this town, to pick up branches, you have to go to a cave in Masabier Mountain.
On the way to Mount Massabje there is a must-cross stream, which Bernadette can only cross with two younger children.
Bernadette's sister and another little girl waded straight into the river, watching them get their clothes wet, and Bernadette was going to take off her shoes and socks and go over.
But just as she was taking off her shoes, a sudden gust of wind blew through, and a white light suddenly flashed at an opening in the Mountain of Massabiya not far away, as if the gust of wind had originated from the opening of the cave.
Bernadette stopped taking off her shoes and socks, and she fixed her eyes on it, and found that with the appearance of the white light, the roses at the mouth of the cave were constantly swaying, and she was very surprised that the believers warmly welcomed the arrival of their idols, but she wanted to see clearly what was going on.
Later, the white light gradually became a very otherworldly beautiful woman, although her whole figure was a little blurry, but it could not hide her unique face, Bernadette was instantly fascinated, she did not know whether she was scared silly, or was fooled.
The beautiful woman shone with a fairy-like white glow and a magnificent string of beads on her hands, and when Bernadette and her eyes were facing each other, she was welcoming herself with open arms, as if a mother was calling her child back into her arms.
As a frenchman of faith, the brave Bernadette immediately reflected that this might be the apparition of the Holy Lord, and quickly took out his beads and began to pray.
The strange thing was that by this time her sister and the little girl Jenny had already crossed the river for most of the day, and they saw Bernadette standing there strangely incomprehensibly, and kept calling her.
"Sister, what are you doing?" Let's go! ”
"Huh?"
Bernadette was panicked by her sister's cry, and with her sister's shouting, the beautiful woman at the mouth of the cave disappeared at the same time.
"Am I the only one who can see her"?
Bernadette began to fall into deep thought, and she was a little frightened by what had just happened, but she couldn't believe that it was only on her.
"I just saw the Virgin, and I seem to see the Virgin, don't you see it?"
"What Madonna, what are you talking about, I haven't seen anything?"
"I really saw it, I told you, you must keep it a secret, what I see about this thing you don't have to say when you go back, remember it?"
While Bernadette looked panicked, she realized that it was also a serious matter, to respect the Lord, to respect the gods, and never to divulge it.
However, God always likes to joke, because her sister always thought that her sister suddenly had a nervous breakdown and a strange disease, so after they picked up the branches and went home, the sister immediately told her parents about it.
"Daughter, this kind of thing can't be joked about."
"I'm not kidding Mom."
After word spread throughout the town about Bernadette's meeting with the mysterious woman, Bernadette was questioned by everyone, including her own mother.
Bernadette knew only that she was not lying, and as for the adults who did not believe her, she herself knew that there was nothing she could do, but perhaps God was joking and caring enough for her, and once while playing with her friends near the cave, she saw the mysterious woman again.
Still as last time, when the woman appeared, there was a white light around her, Bernadette was not so frightened this time, but when she saw her appear, she immediately knelt on the ground and began to pray, and her friends saw Bernadette kneeling on the ground with a strange look of surprise and doubt, and like Bernadette's sister, they could not even hear her voice.
"Bernadette, what's wrong with you"?
Seeing that Bernadette should not be, they began to throw stones at the cave where Bernadette was worshipping to attract her attention.
"It's all right!"
After being called back to God by her companions, Bernadette watched as the woman disappeared. This time, she decided that the next time she came alone, no one would bring her, and she must find out the identity of the woman.
"In the future, you will come every day for two consecutive weeks."
Finally, the woman appeared when Bernadette went alone, and asked her to continue to visit for two weeks, which became a mysterious two weeks of worship for the followers of Bernadette in later generations.
"I'm not lying, she wears a white veil on her head, a blue belt around her waist, and a yellow rose on each foot, and this --- is the appearance of the Virgin Mary!"
No matter how Bernadette explained it, her parents did not believe her words, but the neighbors in the town believed her even more, so Bernadette decided to ignore her parents and wanted to become a nun.
Before becoming a nun, she came to the mouth of the cave again to talk to the Virgin Mary in her heart, and she told Bernadette to find a clean spring to wash away her dirt, and then she could start doing what she wanted.
There was not enough spring water around, simply dig his own hole, Bernadette found a place not far away and began to dig his own spring water, did not expect a large amount of water to gush out in an instant, and Bernadette dug this spring, that is, Lourdes' cave, which was later called one of the most sacred Catholic shrines in the world.
When she got home, Bernadette went to the local church, and she said that she believed in everything she saw, that she did not want to live in the gossip and all kinds of discussions of the people, and that there were still many people in the town who worshipped her as a saint every day because of this matter, which seriously affected her life.
"I want to be a true nun, I want to live in seclusion in a remote church, and I want to spend my whole life in prayer."
In 1879, Sister Bernadette died of illness at the Convent of St. Gilda, at the age of 35.
It was also at this time that everyone found that her body was very well preserved, and everything in the coffin began to rust, except that her body was still as bright as a living woman.
After the third movement of Bernadette's eucharist in 1925, more and more saints began to worship her body, and now 143 years later, Bernadette's method of preserving her body is still a mystery, although the outside world has been controversial, but the most undoubted thing is her life's adventure.
There was a growing belief that Bernadette was the chosen virgin of the Virgin Mary.
Many things in the world that are difficult to explain by science are usually classified as "gods and beliefs", whether their existence is in line with common sense or in line with personal tastes, everyone should respect and treat them with a normal heart, do not cause malicious conflicts, because they do not recognize it if they do not meet your wishes, and faith is always worthy of respect.
Reference source: Zhonghua Net "She is 1.4 meters tall, experienced an adventure, and her body was not decomposed for 140 years after her death, and she was called a holy woman"