Magnificent Corpses: Searching Through Europe for St. Peter's Head, St. Claire's Heart, St. Stephen's Hand, and Other Saintly Relic

This is not another book about the shroud of Tourin, nor does it pretend to be. The middle ages were a time when relics abounded and DNA testing was not the order of the day. You could do a lucretive trade in goat bones and call them the remains of saints....and many people did. The Catholic Church doesn't even know how many saints it has so who was to argue whether the finger of Saint Margo was real? Or even if there was a saint Margo. This book takes a humorous look at the myths and tall tales that surround some of these relics and yes some very questionable relics are still venerated today...

I read "Magnificent Corpses" while vacationing in France and Italy, and it is just the type of fascinating and quirky travel book that can take a tourist off the beaten path, and enrich his or her journey.Because of Anneli Rufus, I was able to pay my respects to the head (and finger) of Saint Catherine, on display in the Church of San Domenico in Siena. I didn't get a chance to visit the rest of her body (in the Roman church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva), but there was a mummified pope (one of the Innocents, I believe) in a glass case in the Vatican. Rufus doesn't mention him in her book, probably because he wasn't a saint, so now I'm going to have to find out why he (of all the popes) wanted to be buried in plain sight. An offbeat book like "Magnificent Corpses" often leads to detective work on subjects (deceased popes) that I never thought would interest me.Rufus goes into interesting detail on both the living saint (if there is any historical evidence that the saint actually existed), and on the preservation and display of the saint's remains. She scolds some of the saints and praises others, e.g. Catherine of Siena. Some may be offended by the author's clever, ironic observations especially since Rufus is not herself a Catholic. However, for me (also a non-Catholic) she turned a mummified finger and a head into the living woman who was credited with healing the schism between Rome and the Popes in Avignon.One of my travelling companions borrowed "Magnificent Corpses" and was last seen reading it on our bus trip to Rome. She seemed as fascinated as I was, so I think I'm going to have to buy myself another copy of Rufus's interesting work.

I also read this little book and looked at some of the reviews posted here to see what other people thought about it. I think this book tries to tell the truth about a pretty sickening custom and I don't know but maybe some people just don't want to deal with the truth. Like the person from New York, I think the author was trying to show that a custom many people think is very tidy and acceptable was, when all was said and done, based in pretty weird ideas about God that anyone with any sense at all would know is way beyond the call of duty. Sure, there were lots of political, financial, and other "complex" factors involved, but I think the author makes it pretty clear that no matter how complex these factors could have been, none of them sprung from a healthy perspective on God.I don't care if you're an Oxford scholar or somebody's granny--if you read what this author reveals about the most basic history custom of relics and your stomach isn't turned, you need to get a clue. It seems to me that someone, like author or reviewer, should not be criticized for being outraged at this disturbing practices, and people just shouldn't justify such things just because they're done behind the veil of religion. The author seems to say in her book, "Who cares about how the Church tried to paint the relic trade up all nice and pretty, it was a big deception from start to finish." I guess this book provokes a reaction, which is usually what happens when somebody tells the truth in their writings. if just one third of the crap she documents was true, everybody in the world has a right ot be disgusted with the relic thing and it seems to me the people who try to defend the custom as having some kind of redeeming value or true mystical significance are just plain in denial. I liked Miss Rufus's stories here. She showed a side of the whole issue that the catholic Church doesn't tell you at Sunday mass, I'll bet. Who would want to read abook that makes relic trade seem respectable? People have a right to be disgusted with it all after reading this.Some things in history deserve to get slammed by rational people and this is one of them. Bully for this author. I giveit five stars too.

While I am in no manner an expert in the study of medieval relic worship(unlike the previous and--dare I say--disturbingly verbose reviewer) I have traveled extensively with an eye acutely fixed upon the various eccentricities of European Catholicism. There are enough of those to fill hundreds of books, indeed. I found the author's travel narrative to be quite competent. It does not purport to be an exhaustive, scholarly work and only those obsessed with the most miniscule of historical minutiae could legitimately raise a complaint. That said, Rufus has done her work admirably. The historical references are clearly well-researched and if there are one or two inaccuracies, these seem to be circumstantial at best and hardly detrimental to the clear intention of the book. The previous reviewer lamented that the author does not devote energy to explaining the alleged complexities and various nuances of medieval relic worship. The fact is, the whole point of the author's work is to assert that there WERE no complexities or intricacies: saint/relic worship sprung from a very straightforwardly daffy, ludicrous, ghoulish, bizarre, macabre, desecrating and (plain old ignorant) human religious impulse. The author's wit and narrative style are wonderfully accurate and capture the sights, sounds, and places of modern Europe with aplomb. There is nothing flippant in this work; the author describes her subjects as she sees them and lets the setting speak for itself. In fact, her observations are loaded with insight--particularly when revealing that many of the lauded holy folk of yore would have been rightfully locked away in padded cells in an age of reason. Her descriptions of countless dead and allegedly miraculous bodies worshipped for their wildly varying and generally dubious states of rot is a sad commentary on the human tendency toward the moronic. In a world where ignoramuses once gathered around yet another pitifully exhumed shepherd-girl corpse, it is easy to imagine the conversation: "Aye, this one must've been a saint. Her nose has rotted off, her fingernails are green and she smells a little musty, but her tongue looks kind of moist. IT'S A BLOODY MIRACLE! Chop her up for distribution to the flock!" To conclude, the author's whole point seems to be the exposure of one of the most sickening symptoms of a very diseased medieval(and modern) institution's "spiritual" traditions. Rufus warns us in a readable, witty way, that some allegedly cherished religious customs mask downright perverted, shameful foundations. She succeeds marvelously in skewering one of the greatest shams and obscenities in human history--the whole, frightfully organized relic mania. There was nothing noble about the practice, and, sadly, nothing noble or remotely virtuous about the lives of many of the "saints" whose body parts were involved. I give this book five stars and a kiss for bravery!

This work is absolutely marvelous! I'll never forget picking up a copy of the Rufus/Lawson book "Goddes Sites" a couple of years ago in Monterey and being blown away by the sheer wit, insight, and fascinating information. This book is just as good! Here, Rufus points her wit at the utterly macabre, morbid, and frankly disgusting penchant of the European Catholic tradition to hack up, dismember, and disgrace the bodies of its alleged "saints" to satisfy the superstitious fixations of the clergy and people. I just spent several months traveling in Europe, and I can tell you that her portrayal of the various churches, practices, and sights are dead-on(no pun intended!). Her style of writing is wonderfully funny and at times even poetic.As a reluctant Catholic, I thrilled to her descriptions of the various churches. I would dare EVERY Roman Catholic to read this book and face the fact that so many of the people the church has pompously(and foolishly) lifted up as "saints" were nothing more than sado-masochistic, psychotic, demented nut-cases! Rufus' historical research is great and I am rightly embarrassed to be a Roman Catholic right now! But who cares?-- I couldn't have laughed more or enjoyed this book more! You MUST read it. It's quirky and superb! One of the most unique travel accounts you'll ever read--just like her "Goddess Sites!" Well done!