By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Modern x-ray techniques have helped researchers to analyze the incorrupt body of St. Rose of Viterbo and determine that she died of a heart ailment rather than the tuberculosis that historical records indicate.
The BBC is reporting that scientists made the discovery during preservation work being performed on the incorrupt body of the young saint, which was beginning to show signs of damage.
With the use of a mobile x-ray device, it was determined that St. Rose, who died at the age of 17 in 1252, suffered from a heart condition known as Cantrell’s syndrome – a condition causing defects in the heart and surrounding tissues. The clue was a dark spot on the saint’s heart which suggests some kind of fatal embolism as the probable cause of her death.
Ruggero D’Anastasio at Gabriele d’Annunzio University in Chieti, Italy, used detailed radiography to examine the saint’s heart and found a ventricular diverticulum – a common defect that causes malformation of the diaphragm and sternum.
“Santa Rosa is one of the most important saints in the Roman Catholic Church and is revered by thousands of people,” D’Anastasio said. “In the future we hope to analyse the heart with more modern technologies.”
St. Rose, whose feast is celebrated on Sept. 4, was born to devout parents in Viterbo, Italy in 1235. Known for her remarkable holiness and miraculous powers while still a toddler, she was only three years old when she raised her maternal aunt from death. She was barely seven when she began living the life of a recluse dedicated to penance.
When these practices brought her near death in her early years, she was healed by the Blessed virgin who told her become a member of the third Order of St. Francis and to preach penance in Viterbo. At the time, Viterbo was in revolt against the pope and her preaching led to the family’s banishment from the city.
They fled to Soriano nel Cimino and eventually to Vitorchiano whose residents were reportedly under the spell of a sorceress. St. Rita not only converted the town, but the sorceress as well, who was said to have been convinced after watching the saint stand in a burning pyre for three hours without being harmed.
The family returned to Viterbo where St. Rita died in 1252. Her dying words to her parents were: “I die with joy, for I desire to be united to my God. Live so as not to fear death. For those who live well in the world, death is not frightening, but sweet and precious.” She was canonized in 1457.
Her incorrupt body, which is kept in a monastery in Viterbo, is carried in procession throughout the town every year on her feastday with great fanfare and celebration.
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