Preserved Saint In Glass Coffin

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

In Europe, it seems as if every cathedral displays a revered body part, organ or other holy relic of a long departed Saint. America has accumulated far less of this stuff -- most of it in collections of saint relics from Europe. But we do have a couple of our own semi-complete saints, thank you very much, that anyone can visit. One is in a church altar in Philadelphia.

John Neumann was a 19th century bishop of that city. He founded schools and at least one order of nuns, tended to those in need, and in 1860 he collapsed and died of a stroke at the age of 48.

That could have been the end of his story -- yet, decades later, people were miraculously recovering from deadly illnesses and injuries, and attributing it to John Neumann. An Italian girl survived peritonitis, a Villanova student recovered completely from a car wreck, a Philadelphia boy defeated bone cancer. The Vatican eventually agreed that miracles had taken place, and declared John Neumann a saint in 1977.

St. John Neumann lies in a glass encasement beneath the altar in Saint Peter the Apostle Church. The bishop is dressed in a miter and vestments, and resembles a big rifle bullet inside a glass-sided gun barrel. When Neumann was exhumed in 1962, it was said that he was remarkably well-preserved for someone who had been buried for almost 103 years -- but his body has been given a wax face, to be presentable.

A small museum off to one side of the sanctuary documents the Saint's life and accomplishments. One case displays his personal instruments of mortification: a sharp-edged wire necklace (cilicium) and a whip for self-flagellation (disciplina).

Next to these is a noose that was used to hang two brothers in a Philadelphia prison. Neumann was able to get them to repent just before their deaths. "At last by his prayers and meekness their hard hearts were softened."

The museum exhibits the marble step on which he collapsed shortly before expiring (A similar, secular relic is the Death Rock of Alexander Hamilton).

John Neumann's coffin is also on exhibit and, like his body, is sealed in a clear-sided box. Displayed atop its lid are decorative paperweights that each contain a splinter of wood from the coffin. You can buy identical paperweights in the gift shop.

On a previous visit to the Shrine, in 1996, we noticed visitors could still purchase tiny bone chips of St. John Neumann (official religious relics, carefully splintered and glued to pendants by a special order of nuns in Rome). But these relics have now apparently run out.