Where are the abdominal viscera of Pope Leo XIII?

22crows

In an urn at the Church of SS. Vincent and Anastasius (Santi Vincenzo e Anastasio) in Rome http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9504E5DA1739E433A25751C2A9619C946297D6CF Oct 18 07, 12:40 AM

queproblema

Well, I'm not sure, 22crows--the article contradicts itself. I found it after reading the other question about canopic jars for the popes' viscera. If you click for the full article, which comes up in PDF format, one paragraph says it was taken to St. Peter's crypt instead of to St. Vincent's, and then the next paragraph relates its peaceful transfer to St. Vincent's. (I would not care for such a straightforward narration of my embalming, if I were embalmed.) Is it just too late for me to read straight? Who knows just the facts, ma'am? Oct 18 07, 12:55 AM

mctavish99

May I politely cast a vote for the "too tired to read straight" option? ;) The article is admittedly rather cumbersome, but this is what I gleaned from it. Up till 1870, the viscera had been conveyed in a public procession to St Vincent's. Because of security concerns, this procedure was departed from in Pope Leo's case. The viscera were first taken to St Peter's (for temporary storage), then privately transferred from there to St Vincent's at midnight. If that interpretation is correct, then there is no contradiction. Oct 18 07, 1:49 AM

lanfranco

The site I posted on the earlier question also states that Leo's viscera are in SS Vincenzo ed Anastasio. Here's another source on that church's unusual function, H.V. Morton's "A Traveller in Rome": http://books.google.com/books?id=fjU3mJ7BJggC&pg=PA42&lpg=PA42&dq=traveller+rome+popes+canopic&source=web&ots=82uHHO6io-&sig=yMH1KRsryutISudmrsvUUdmXIF4#PPA41,M1 Oct 18 07, 7:17 AM

22crows

Yes, mctavish, that's how I understood the procedure. Oct 18 07, 7:36 AM

queproblema

Thanks; you guys are great. By the dawn's early light it seems that it is Pope Pius IX's innards that are missing from the collection. I have a PDF open from last night that says so, but I don't know how I got there!! It's in the last two paragraphs of a story in the NYT dated July 23, 1903. No cutting and pasting possible from there, but it says: "The depository [at SS V & A] had not been opened since 1846, as, contrary to custom, the viscera of Pius IX are at St. Peter's." It goes on to say the rector of SS V & A wanted to have them transferred to complete the sequence. Since that was over 100 years ago, perhaps his wish came true. What I wonder is how the custom was instituted in the first place. Oct 18 07, 9:17 AM

lanfranco

If you removed the internal organs, the body of the deceased could be put on display longer, and this had been done off and on during the Middle Ages. I believe it was Sixtus V (1585-1590) who decided that the otherwise not-very-interesting SS Vincenzo ed Anastasio would be the repository of the organs, because it was the parish church of what was, at that time, the Papal Palace on the Quirinal Hill. The palace had been completed in the 1570's, during the reign of the previous pope. (It is now the residence of the President of Italy.) Oct 18 07, 9:49 AM