# Chapels of the Dead.



## Physeter (Apr 16, 2015)

This is one curiosity I have found about the Catholic church is its ossuaries and dead bodies in the churches. Other religions have ossuaries too, but I find it curious that the Catholic Church, an institution that claims Christ would have these macabre monuments.

Here is a list of them. You can Google or Bing them.

*Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini, Rome Italy* The crypt is fashioned into a macabre display. The ceiling is ornamented with pieces of the spine, ribs and pelvises. It contains the bones of over 4,000 Capuchin friars, collected between the years of 1528 and 1870. They are fashioned into decorative displays in the Baroque and Rococo style 

*Sedlec Ossuary, Czech Republic* This ossuary is estimated to contain the bones of between 40,000 and 70,000 people. The bones have in many cases been arranged to form decorations and furnishings for the chapel. Among these furnishings are chandeliers. There is even a coat of arms in there made of bones. The whole thing is pretty grotesque.

*Skull Chapel, Czermna, Poland*. The whole interior of this chapel is bones. It was built in 1776 by a Czech local parish priest, Wacław Tomaszek. He collected bones of people who died during the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648), three Silesian Wars (1740–1763), as well as of people who died because of cholera epidemics, plague, syphilis and hunger. He did this with the help of a grave digger J. Langer and J. Schmidt. He was inspired to do this after a visit to the massive Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini ossuary.

*Capela dos Ossos, Portugal*l, is pretty grotesque Not only is it filled with bones, but it has two bodies hanging from ropes, one an adult and the other a child. It was built as an affront to the reformation in the 16th century by a Franciscan monk.

Now for the last one a corpse--*Bernadette Soubirous* enshrined at the Convent of St. Gildard of Nevers. Also in Lourdes, there is a reliquary containing a 'relic' of Bernadette, one of her ribs, at the altar of St. Joseph in the Crypt. The feast of Bernadette is the 18th. February. Her relics is carried in procession through the town from the Parish Church to the Grotto. Idolatry anyone?

In the bible bones and dead bodies are associated with uncleanness. They were used by the Jews to defile an altar.

Some examples of that.
Ezekiel 6:5-- And I will lay the dead carcases of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars.

2 Kings 23:16--And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the Lord which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words.

And this scripture here is very unfavorable toward the practice of making bones or dead bodies as an object of veneration.

Ezekiel 43:7-- And he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and my holy name, shall the house of Israel no more defile, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoredom, nor by the carcases of their kings in their high places.


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## yeutter (Apr 16, 2015)

The practice of having relics of departed saints in the alter is an early one. It may have dated to the time of persecution when the Church worshiped in the catacombs. Unlike their pagan persecutors, Christians were not superstitious about burial places having the hope of the resurrection. The scriptures you point to are a reminder to look to God's Word not to past practice when we worship the Lord.


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## MichaelNZ (Apr 17, 2015)

These chapels are an example of _memento mori_, meaning "remember (that you will) die". It is a practice of reflecting on mortality. You can read more here: Memento mori - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## Physeter (Apr 17, 2015)

Thank you to both you of that posted. It helped me to understand these memorials a little better. Life is indeed fleeting and we do have to be reminded of that fact.


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## Curt (Apr 17, 2015)

Grumman Tomcat said:


> Sedlec Ossuary, Czech Republic This ossuary is estimated to contain the bones of between 40,000 and 70,000 people. The bones have in many cases been arranged to form decorations and furnishings for the chapel. Among these furnishings are chandeliers. There is even a coat of arms in there made of bones. The whole thing is pretty grotesque.



Visited this one. Really strange.


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## Philip (Apr 17, 2015)

Grumman Tomcat said:


> Thank you to both you of that posted. It helped me to understand these memorials a little better. Life is indeed fleeting and we do have to be reminded of that fact.



I'm curious as to whether it's all that different from having tombs and memorials in the church or a graveyard beside it.


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## C. M. Sheffield (Apr 18, 2015)

When I was in the Navy, I was in Sicily for six months and had the opportunity of visiting some of their churches. One church in Palermo was very memorable. The entire basement of the church (which was arranged like a church itself) had every wall covered with dead men and women at various degrees of decomposition. Many had clothes on (suits and dresses). It felt demonic and occultic in nature.


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## Peairtach (Apr 18, 2015)

Seeing things like the supposed skull of Mary Magdalene at Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, in the south of France, which is paraded every year, just confirms one in understanding the dangers of idolatry and the depths to which it can take hold of people's minds. 

There seems to be something peculiarly revolting and depraved about devotion to, veneration of, and worship of bits of dead people, although is it any worse than making use of a beautifully manufactured icon or sculpture?

I suppose it makes one aware of the vileness of idolatry in another way.


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## C. M. Sheffield (Apr 18, 2015)

Sicilians are very superstitious. There are vendors hocking "holy" trinkets left and right. They even sold little circular bumper stickers with the images of various "saints" which were meant to protect the driver. I recall seeing some cars with the whole back window covered to the point that they couldn't see out of it--a ridiculous irony. I remember old ladies with crude photo-copied images of different saints that they would give away to people in the market places with promises that it would protect them and bring them good fortune. I felt like Luther in Rome. I had never witnessed first-hand the idolatry that Calvin railed against. It was stunning. American Catholicism is comparatively tamed to what I saw in Italy. And with American Catholicism as the point of reference, many come away from Calvin with the impression that he is exaggerating the evils of Catholicism.


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## Physeter (Apr 18, 2015)

What especially concerns me is this business about Bernadette Soubirous. It seems to me they have made an idol of her corpse. They parade a reliquary with her rib in it each year in a procession through the town from the Parish Church to the Grotto.


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## MichaelNZ (Apr 20, 2015)

Bernadette Soubirous is "incorruptible" - that is, her body hasn't undergone decay. However, a wax mask has been placed over the face so she appears completely untouched. John Maximovitch, former Russian Orthodox archbishop of Shanghai and San Francisco, appears more decomposed (although you can only see his hands), and he only died in 1966.


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