Saints or demons. Reflections on the uncorrupted bodies

Abstract

In the way a culture constructs its notion of the body is a symbolic figure essential to understand reality. The representations that man makes of himself and his surroundings have changed over the happening of various social, economic, political and religious events. Different characters, concepts and times in history have fed a large pool of theories, explanations and ideas about incorrupt bodies. But what are these bodies?, What makes them special compared to others? By definition, they are preserved bodies, but from a religious perspective, are bodies that for unknown reasons do not suffer putrefaction and have a well-defined set of characteristics that make them different and that cataloged as Santos or otherwise, as demons, which attests to divine or demonic intervention. From the scientific view, Taphonomy explains the bodies as conservative phenomena. The reflection is done by reviewing literature sources about incorrupt bodies, their meanings and representations in the context of the Apostolic Roman Catholic thought. It has been observed that the concepts have not been the same even within this religion at different times.