The heart of Blessed Anne-Madeleine Remuzat: a biomedical approach of “miraculous” heart conservation

Abstract

We present here the results of our inter-disciplinary examination of the mummified heart of Blessed Anne-Madeleine Remuzat (1696–1730). This organ has been examined in the context of a canonization process. This analysis is related to important aspects of the early history of anatomy in Europe, that of “Holy autopsies”, and to the relationship between anatomical investigations, Catholic theology, and religious/medical customs.

According to anatomical, genetic, toxicological, and palynological analyses, it has been shown that this organ has not been naturally (“miraculously”) conserved but embalmed using myrtle, honey, and lime. Moreover, a right ventricle dilatation has been diagnosed, that may represent a post-tuberculosis condition and may have played a role in the cause of death of this religious figure.

Introduction

In the context of the canonization process deposed to the Vatican (Congregation for Saints Purposes), we have been asked by the Archbishopric of Marseille (France) to perform the global scientific examination of the mummified heart of the Blessed Anne-Madeleine Remuzat (AMR) kept in the basilica of Sacred Heart.

Born in Marseille on November 29, 1696, Anne-Madeleine Remuzat asked her parents to be allowed to enter the convent of the Visitation at only 9 years old: the request was granted. In 1708 she began to experience severe sufferings, which she bore patiently during her whole life. In 1709 her parents withdrew her, but in 1711 she re-entered the convent and in 1713, made her profession. At this time she devoted herself to prayer, and the Spiritual Retreat she wrote then is a proof of her progress in the contemplative life. On the 17th of October 1713, she experienced a «particular and extraordinary» revelation of Jesus «concerning the glory of his Sacred Heart». As her sanctity grew famous, Anne-Madeleine was consulted by many people, and was thus the mean of a spreading devotion to the Sacred Heart. Her influence convinced Mgr de Belsunce to establish the Association of Perpetual Adoration of the Sacred Heart in Marseille, an association of which she wrote the statutes. As Jansenism and a spirit of moral laxity had invaded the town by then, Anne-Madeleine suffered keenly, and in reparation inflicted on her body continual mortifications. When her superiors forbade these austerities, she begged God to mortify her himself and from that day she went into a painful decline. In 1720, during the plague in Marseille, God enjoined her to institute a feast in the honor of the Sacred Heart, which was established on the same year. She died on the 15th of February 1730. Since 1722, the veneration of the Sacred Heart had spread throughout the French Provence, Lyon, Rouen, Constantinople, Cairo, Spain, Louisiana, Persia, Syria, and the Indies by her endeavors. In 1888, her cause was submitted to the Sacred Congregation, whose favorable vote was given on the 18th of December 1890. Leo XIII signed on the 24th of December 1891, the introduction of the cause of the Venerable servant of God [1], [2].