Rosalia Lombardo died on the eve of her second birthday, having lived on earth for a very short time. Her fame is sad - the girl died of pneumonia in 1920. The family, which was very upset by the loss of a child, turned to the embalmer Alfredo Salafia, who treated the body with a special compound. The mummy of the child was left in Palermo, in the catacomb of the Capuchins. Almost two-year-old Rosalia Lombardo is in the chapel of the same name. The exhibit, which lies in a small coffin with a glass lid, is open to tourists and is the last point on the route through the catacombs.
Rosalia Lombardo: in life - a child, after death - a sign from above
Some people believe that the main secret of preserving the body is the secret chemical composition used by the embalmer. Others consider it a miracle. One way or another, one of the most amazing objects in the burial catacombs of the Capuchins is Rosalia Lombardo. "Sleeping Beauty" - that was the name of the girl after her death. But this was not only the embalmingcomposition of Salafiya.
For a long time, little Rosalia Lombardo remained almost intact. The photo, which can be found in any source, still demonstrates the extent to which the body has been preserved. It's been over a hundred years since her death. Then she had a light childish skin, which was not touched by traces of decomposition. The curls and bow were the same as in life.
After some time, inexplicable events began to occur in the chapel. One of the parishioners claimed to have seen Rosalia open and close her eyes. The chapel attendants began to smell lavender, which is usually smelled by small children.
A fact that contradicts medicine
All this could not fail to attract the attention of scientists. They had little hope of making new discoveries, but what they found was really amazing - the girl's brain twice showed activity that can only be characteristic of a living person!
Dr. Paulo Cortes, who headed the medical research, was amazed by this discovery. Indeed, in medicine there are cases when the body could "resurrect" after being dead for half an hour. And also the state of coma can last for several years. However, by the time Rosalia Lombardo became the subject of medical study, she had been in her coffin for 73 years.
Some believe that the girl's soul returned to the body for a while when brain activity was recorded at an interval of 33 and 12 seconds. The astonished researchers then carefully recheckedequipment and accuracy of the experiment, but no error was found - Rosalia Lombardo really "came back" to life for a while.
Amazing eyewitness accounts
It is widely believed among the clergy that Rosalia Lombardo is the messenger of God, although this is not officially confirmed by the Catholic Church.
Some residents of Palermo say they witnessed the girl opening and closing her eyes. Believe them or not? Who knows. But what remains undeniable is the fact that the electrical activity of a brain that has been dead for decades has been recorded. Such indications can only be characteristic of living nervous tissue.
The chemical composition, until recently kept secret, had such an effect on the body that the child seemed not dead, but sleeping. Mysterious events constantly took place around the girl's body. For example, one of the abbots, Father Donatello, tells that one of the monks lost his mind in a short period of time: “He claimed that Rosalia's eyes were open for thirty seconds. Despite the fact that the caretaker was considered crazy, after that, a group of scientists was called to conduct research.
Clue to the mysterious composition
Scientist Dario Piombino Mascali at the end of the twentieth century revealed the secret of the composition with which Rosalia's body was embalmed. It included zinc, formalin, glycerin and other components. By injection, the solution penetrated into all tissues. Subsequently, in the United States,studies in which Alfredo Salafia's balm was tested. The results exceeded all expectations - with the help of the composition it was really possible to keep the bodies from decomposition. Thus, there is a scientific explanation for how this girl survived. Rosalia Lombardo surprises more with her mystical visitations during the presence of doctors, as well as parishioners and ministers of the chapel.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, however, the body began to show little signs of decomposition. Therefore, it was processed and placed in a chamber filled with nitrogen.
Taphonomy is a science dealing with death
Rozalia's case is far from the only one. Although the composition of the Salafia balm has been disclosed, this case does not cease to excite medical scientists. Currently, a whole direction has arisen in science called taphonomy. It studies those patterns that are characteristic of the processes of physical decomposition. In America, in the state of Tennessee, there is even a "farm of the dead" - a laboratory in which research is being carried out in this direction.
Man is powerless against death. Having invented almost everything for a comfortable life, having learned to cure many diseases and gaining control over the forces of nature, people still cannot penetrate the line of understanding: what happens to a living being after death.
Conservation of bodies that defies logic
However, this feature is not always final for the physical body. People don't know where they're goingsoul. And is she coming back? Or, maybe, after being on Earth for forty days, she goes to other worlds forever?
This is still unknown to scientists, and no one knows if the mystery of the afterlife will be discovered in the near future. However, the phenomenon of Rosalia Lombardo, as well as other bodies preserved after physical death, leaves a lot of spiritual food for mere mortals, as well as fields for the work of researchers.
Other cases of incorruptibility after death
It is believed that meditative practices help to achieve the state of incorruptibility after death. It is known that the body of the yogi Paramahansa Yogananda was not affected by decomposition for a long time. Also famous is the case of Lama Itigelov, who was also found by Russian scientists in the lotus position without any changes.
Thus, the example of Rosalia once again confirms: the physical and spiritual worlds are very close. Perhaps her soul decided to return for a while, not only to become a new mystery for scientists. Who knows, maybe little Rosalia Lombardo decided to remind humanity how close the other world is, and how little time people have left for good deeds.
