# Rosalia Lombardo



## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

For those who haven't seen The Catacombs of Capuchin in Palermo,Sicily, this picture, her name is Rosalia Lombardo, an Italian child who was born in 1918 and died in 1920 of pneumonia in Sicily really fascinated me all this week that I had to show you guys this. It's so amazing how this "beautiful mummy" looks asleep, you could never tell by the way she resembles a resting little girl, One day I would like to visit there and take a trip.


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## Langham (Nov 7, 2012)

I must say Howard, that is remarkable - her body seems amazingly well preserved.

Lats year while in Hungary I visited the town of Vacs, which has quite a number of naturally mummified corpses in the catacombs below the main church. The reason for their preservation is that the air is very dry, but none of them looked like Rosalio Lombardo - they were mostly rather like this:



Spoiler














 (Vaguely unsettling.)


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## Shaver (May 2, 2012)

Thank you Howard for sharing this. I was not aware of this remarkable preservation. It is, as you say, fascinating. I have been fortunate enough to visit the Capuchin crypt in Rome - although this is a collection of bones, very cleverly arranged, with no preservation as in the picture you have posted. Some people are unnerved by proximity to human remains but to others they are a thought provoking memento mori.


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## Chouan (Nov 11, 2009)

The doctor who did the preservation used a form of glycerin in the process to make a more "lifelike" finish. 
I must say that catacombs, either in Palermo, Vacs or Paris, are not places that I wish to visit.


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## Kingstonian (Dec 23, 2007)

I was in Palermo earlier in the year. I did not see this though. Not in my guide book.


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## Chouan (Nov 11, 2009)

https://www.palermocatacombs.com/


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

Presuming to speak for no one other than myself and consistent with the hillbilly that I acknowledge that I am, the Palermo Catacombs and their 'eternal occupants' really creep me out!  :crazy:


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## cellochris (Dec 14, 2015)




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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

Langham said:


> *I must say Howard, that is remarkable - her body seems amazingly well preserved.*
> 
> Lats year while in Hungary I visited the town of Vacs, which has quite a number of naturally mummified corpses in the catacombs below the main church. The reason for their preservation is that the air is very dry, but none of them looked like Rosalio Lombardo - they were mostly rather like this:
> 
> ...


I know it's amazing but the question is why would a Father want to mummify the body instead of just burying it and also displaying it for the world to see? It's just feels too creepy. What are your thoughts?


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

Shaver said:


> Thank you Howard for sharing this. I was not aware of this remarkable preservation. It is, as you say, fascinating. I have been fortunate enough to visit the Capuchin crypt in Rome - although this is a collection of bones, very cleverly arranged, with no preservation as in the picture you have posted. Some people are unnerved by proximity to human remains but to others they are a thought provoking memento mori.


I'm just waiting for one day to wake up and walk out of her encapsulation and say "Mama Papà sono vivo,Dove sono andati"?


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

Chouan said:


> The doctor who did the preservation used a form of glycerin in the process to make a more "lifelike" finish.
> I must say that catacombs, either in Palermo, Vacs or Paris, are not places that I wish to visit.


Are there cruises to Italy where you can visit the Catacombs?


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

Would Rosalia still be alive today if she hadn't had pneumonia and with all of today's medicine and technology would it have been possible for her to live a longer life? I mean today she would be 98 years old but I'm just saying would she have grown up healthy if she had taken care of herself? How did she get pneumonia anyway?


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## Chouan (Nov 11, 2009)

Howard said:


> Are there cruises to Italy where you can visit the Catacombs?


You could fly straight there to Palermo from the US. A bit expensive, I would imagine, but you could rent a villa for a week and see some of the rest of Sicily at the same time.


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## Langham (Nov 7, 2012)

Howard said:


> I know it's amazing but the question is why would a Father want to mummify the body instead of just burying it and also displaying it for the world to see? It's just feels too creepy. What are your thoughts?


It's possibly not what I would have chosen to do. Perhaps he was overcome by grief and unable to accept that she was dead?



Howard said:


> I'm just waiting for one day to wake up and walk out of her encapsulation and say "Mama Papà sono vivo,Dove sono andati"?


I don't think that will happen.



Howard said:


> Are there cruises to Italy where you can visit the Catacombs?


Quite probably. Sicily (and the rest of Italy) are worth a visit in any case. Your Italian would be handy.



Howard said:


> Would Rosalia still be alive today if she hadn't had pneumonia and with all of today's medicine and technology would it have been possible for her to live a longer life? I mean today she would be 98 years old but I'm just saying would she have grown up healthy if she had taken care of herself? How did she get pneumonia anyway?


Who can say? There was a major flu epidemic at that time. Millions died.


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## Dhaller (Jan 20, 2008)

Langham said:


> Who can say? There was a major flu epidemic at that time. Millions died.


I had a great-grandmother who died (young) during that flu epidemic; happily, she is long one with the Earth, and not blinking at temperature and humidity changes in a glass case.

But even today, a two-year old with the flu is a touch and go thing.

Funny, at some level I disapprove of this... experiment in embalming, yet Egyptian mummies don't bother me; I'm not sure if it's the gulf of time, a tolerance of the religious significance of Egyptian methods, or what. Possibly just a bias between modernity and antiquity; we "know better" at this point.

Still, an interesting relic.

DH


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## Shaver (May 2, 2012)

Howard said:


> I'm just waiting for one day to wake up and walk out of her encapsulation and say "Mama Papà sono vivo,Dove sono andati"?


Why Howard! I am impressed. Do you have Italian roots?


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## tocqueville (Nov 15, 2009)

eagle2250 said:


> Presuming to speak for no one other than myself and consistent with the hillbilly that I acknowledge that I am, the Palermo Catacombs and their 'eternal occupants' really creep me out!  :crazy:


I find them ghastly as well.


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## Shaver (May 2, 2012)




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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

Chouan said:


> You could fly straight there to Palermo from the US. A bit expensive, I would imagine, but you could rent a villa for a week and see some of the rest of Sicily at the same time.


How long of a flight do you think it will take?


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

Langham said:


> It's possibly not what I would have chosen to do. Perhaps he was overcome by grief and unable to accept that she was dead?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Why didn't they fix the flu epidemic?


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

Dhaller said:


> I had a great-grandmother who died (young) during that flu epidemic; happily, she is long one with the Earth, and not blinking at temperature and humidity changes in a glass case.
> 
> But even today, a two-year old with the flu is a touch and go thing.
> 
> ...


DH, How would you feel if you had to mummify your relatives? Would it feel creepy?


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

Shaver said:


> Why Howard! I am impressed. Do you have Italian roots?


No Shaver, I looked it up on Google Translate but I think our family roots might have some Italian Jews, I'm not sure.


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## Langham (Nov 7, 2012)

Howard said:


> Why didn't they fix the flu epidemic?


Flu is a virus Howard - the virus constantly mutates so it cannot be fixed. Every few years there is a new epidemic, but the 1918 virus was unusually deadly.


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## Chouan (Nov 11, 2009)

Howard said:


> How long of a flight do you think it will take?


I've shown an example of flight time and costs. You'd need to change at Milan or Rome. https://www.skyscanner.net/transpor...9-1702090620--32588,-32132-1-12712-1702091625

In any case, have a look for yourself at this site https://www.skyscanner.net/


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

Langham said:


> Flu is a virus Howard - the virus constantly mutates so it cannot be fixed. Every few years there is a new epidemic, but the 1918 virus was unusually deadly.


I'm glad I didn't live in that era, that's for sure.


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

Chouan said:


> I've shown an example of flight time and costs. You'd need to change at Milan or Rome. https://www.skyscanner.net/transpor...9-1702090620--32588,-32132-1-12712-1702091625
> 
> In any case, have a look for yourself at this site https://www.skyscanner.net/


Thanks Chouan, so it would take about 15-20 hours on plane.


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## Chouan (Nov 11, 2009)

Howard said:


> Thanks Chouan, so it would take about 15-20 hours on plane.


Including waiting time and transfer time in Milan or Rome.


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## Dhaller (Jan 20, 2008)

Howard said:


> DH, How would you feel if you had to mummify your relatives? Would it feel creepy?


Given my upbringing, yes; if I had grown up in a culture whose reverence for the dead involved mummification, of course, it would be perfectly acceptable.

My wife, who is Buddhist and grew up in Japan, finds the Christian funeral and burial (application or rouge to the cheeks to simulate life, interment, etc) all pretty creepy and/or ghastly, but of course it's natural to me. And so on.

This seems to have been a special case, though, of a father unwilling to let his daughter go, and another leveraging the father's grief to essentially perform a taxidermical experiment ("at last! a human child!"). Rosalia isn't a mummy per se (mummification is a drying process), but simply an attempt to prevent decay and preserve the "suppleness" of the corpse (using glycerin to *prevent* actual mummification, and salts to form an internal crust which prevents collapse).

I'll go on to point out that, generally, burial rituals involve rendering the corpse such that it won't spread disease - burying it deep in the earth, drying it, burning it and so on all make it unsuitable for bacterial colonization; maintaining a corpse in a moist, fleshy state certainly doesn't do *that*.

DH


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

Chouan said:


> Including waiting time and transfer time in Milan or Rome.


What about if you were going to go by cruise ship?


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

Dhaller said:


> Given my upbringing, yes; if I had grown up in a culture whose reverence for the dead involved mummification, of course, it would be perfectly acceptable.
> 
> My wife, who is Buddhist and grew up in Japan, finds the Christian funeral and burial (application or rouge to the cheeks to simulate life, interment, etc) all pretty creepy and/or ghastly, but of course it's natural to me. And so on.
> 
> ...


Thanks for that story DH, good read.


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## Chouan (Nov 11, 2009)

Howard said:


> What about if you were going to go by cruise ship?


You would have to find a cruise ship with an itinerary that includes Palermo, but you'd probably still have to fly to Europe to join the cruise.


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## Langham (Nov 7, 2012)

Howard said:


> What about if you were going to go by cruise ship?


Italian cruise ships have a chequered history, Howard.


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

Langham said:


> Italian cruise ships have a chequered history, Howard.


OH MY!


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## Chouan (Nov 11, 2009)

P&O do cruises to Palermo: Here's their web page https://www.pocruises.com/find-and-book/cruise-search-results/?portcodes=pal


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

Chouan said:


> P&O do cruises to Palermo: Here's their web page https://www.pocruises.com/find-and-book/cruise-search-results/?portcodes=pal


Thanks Chouan.


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