Embalming - Notable Embalmings

Notable Embalmings

• Various communist leaders have been embalmed and put on public display. Perhaps the most famous embalmed body of the 20th century is that of Vladimir Lenin, which continues to draw crowds decades after his death in 1924 and is seen in his Moscow mausoleum. Joseph Stalin was also embalmed and placed next to Lenin but his body was buried in 1961 during de-Stalinization. Klement Gottwald of Czechoslovakia, who died just five days after attending Stalin's funeral was embalmed and displayed in a mausoleum at the site of the Jan Žižka monument on Vítkov hill in Prague. However in 1962 due to a botched embalming, the body was decomposing and had to be removed and cremated. Bulgarian Georgi Dimitrov was embalmed and placed on display in the Sofia Georgi Dimitrov Mausoleum. After the fall of Communism in Bulgaria, his body was buried in 1990 in the Central cemetery of Sofia. Mongolia's Khorloogiin Choibalsan, Angola's Agostinho Neto, and Guyana's Forbes Burnham were also embalmed by the same Russian team. Presently, embalmed communist leaders can also be found in the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong, the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, and the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun for Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il.
• The botched embalming of Pius XII (1876 – pope 1939–1958) by a charlatan doctor—which only sped up the rate of decomposition—led to his body turning black and his nose falling off while lying in state, and the body disintegrated in the coffin. The Swiss Guards stationed around Pius XII's body were forced to change shifts every ten to fifteen minutes since the body's odor caused some guards to pass out. The doctor who performed the embalming had also taken photos of the Pontiff in his death throes and intended to sell them to tabloids. The Italian tabloids refused to buy the photos, and the doctor was banned from entering the Vatican City-State by John XXIII, who furthermore prohibited any photography of a deceased Pope until the body is properly vested and laid out.
• Pope John XXIII, (1881 – pope 1958–1963) body is on display in an altar on the main floor of the Basilica of Saint Peter after having been exhumed from the grottoes beneath the main altar and has retained an extremely well preserved state. If a body's remains do not decompose, contrary to expectations, it is often treated as a miracle. However, the case of John XXIII's body did not enjoy the same acclamation, as it was held to have been due to embalming and adipocere formation.
• Saint Pope Pius X, (1835 – pope 1903–1914) body is in a crystal coffin, in the Chapel of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary. On 17 February 1952, Pius X's body was transferred from the crypt of the Vatican grotto. The pontiff's body dressed in pontifical robes, while the face and hands are covered with silver. He lies within a glass and bronze-work sarcophagus for the faithful to see. Papal physicians had been in the habit of removing organs to aid the embalming process. Pius X expressly prohibited this, however, and none of his successors have allowed the practice to be reinstituted.
• Murdered civil rights activist Medgar Evers was so well embalmed that a viable autopsy was able to be performed on his corpse decades after his death and this helped secure the conviction of his killer.
• Famous Russian surgeon and scientist N. I. Pirogov, was embalmed after his death in 1881. He was embalmed using the technique he himself developed. His body rests in a church in Vinnitsa, Ukraine. In contrast to the corpse of Lenin, which undergoes thorough maintenance in a special underground clinic twice a week, the body of Pirogov rests untouched and unchanging – it is said that only dust has to be brushed off of it. It resides at room temperature in a glass-lid coffin (while Lenin's body is preserved at a constant low temperature).
• Abraham Lincoln was embalmed after his assassination in 1865. In order to prevent anyone stealing Lincoln's body, Lincoln's eldest son Robert called for Lincoln's exhumation in 1901 to be buried in a concrete vault in the burial room of his tomb in Springfield, Illinois. Fearing that his body would have been stolen in the interim, Lincoln's coffin was opened, and his features were still recognizable, thirty-six years after his death.
• Rosalia Lombardo, who died at age one on 6 December 1920 and was one of the last corpses to make it to the Capuchin catacombs of Palermo, Sicily before the local authorities banned the practice. Nicknamed the 'Sleeping Beauty', Rosalia's body is still perfectly intact. Embalmed by Alfredo Salafia, she is in a glass case, looking very much like a surreal doll.
• Eva Perón was embalmed by Dr. Pedro Ara ordered by her husband Juan Perón. The body was preserved to look like it was in a sleep-like state. The procedure worked and the body showed no signs of decomposition when Eva was interred at her final resting place many years after the initial procedure.
• Kemal Ataturk whose sarcophagus lies at Anıtkabir in Ankara, Turkey. Only two people are authorised to view his body: the General of the Armed Forces and the Physician in charge of checking the state of his body.
• Ferdinand Marcos was embalmed in Hawaii upon his death. His body was flown home and is currently on display in Batac, Ilocos Norte, Philippines.
• Diana, Princess of Wales was embalmed shortly after her death in France in August 1997. The decision to embalm her provoked conspiracy theories that she was pregnant, as the embalming fluid would have destroyed any evidence of feotal presence in her womb. The official explanation for the embalming was due to the warm conditions in the chapel of rest where her body was laid out, would have sped up the decomposition of the remains.