Italian-born Rosalia Lombardo was born on December 13, 1918, and she passed away on December 6, 1920. She passed away from pneumonia brought on by the Spanish flu. It is said that Rosalia Lamborda’s death transformed her into something greater than life.
A week after Rosalia’s passing, her father, Mario Lombardo, who was devastated and was still grieving deeply, requested that her body be embalmed by Alfred Salafia. This allowed them to visit the body whenever they desired.
Because of their suitable climate, the Capuchin catacombs of Palermo in Sicily were ideal for keeping mummified mummies.
10 Mysterious Facts about Rosalia Lombardo
1. Rosalia Lombardo’s Two Years On Earth
During the Spanish Flu pandemic, she was a tiny child who was born sickly and weak. Throughout her brief life, she was subjected to a great deal of agony and illness. She died of pneumonia, most likely caused by the Spanish flu.
It is thought that her father was a wealthy lord who served in the Italian military and could thus afford to keep her body for eternity after her death.
2. The Cause Of Her Death
Rosalia Lombardo died of pneumonia, which was most likely caused by the 1918 influenza pandemic produced by the H1N1 influenza A virus, which lasted from February 1918 to April 1920 and afflicted 500 million people.
As a result, pneumonic infiltrates in the right middle lobe of the lung can still be seen on the computer tomogram.
3. Rosalia’s Organs Are Still Very Intact.
X-rays of Rosalia’s body taken after her death reveal that all of her organs are surprisingly undamaged. This is due to Alfredo Salafia’s exceptional embalming talents and techniques.
Rosalia Lombardo’s body is still very well preserved in Palermo’s Capuchin catacombs.
4. How Was Rosalia’s Body Preserved?
Dario Piombino-Mascali, the keeper of Capuchin catacombs, uncovered a handwritten paper made by Alfredo Salafia in 2009, in which he outlined all the secret components and the technique he employed to preserve Rosalia’s remains.
He hunted down Alfredo Salafia’s living relatives and discovered Alfredo’s documents in their possession.
It is stated that she was injected into her femoral artery with one part glycerin, one part formalin saturated with zinc sulfate and zinc chloride, and one part of an alcohol solution saturated with salicylic acid.
Her hair is still styled and packed in perfect order and has shown no signs of falling off. Her cheeks, like the rest of her body, are almost perfect because the embalming procedure keeps them from caving in.
5. The State In Which The Body Of Rosalia Is Kept
Rosalia Lombardo’s body is encased in a glass-covered coffin which was placed on a wooden pedestal in the chapel at the end of the catacombs tour.
However, in 2009, a photograph of the body by National Geographic showed that the mummy had started showing signs of decomposition and so it had to be moved to somewhere drier in the catacombs.
Rosalia’s original coffin was then placed in a hermetically sealed glass enclosure with nitrogen gas to prevent decay.
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6. Rosalia’s Body Is A Historical Achievement
To date, Rosalia Lombardo’s mummified body remains one of the best-preserved bodies in the Capuchin catacombs of Sicily.
Rossella Lorenzi of Discovery News reported that the Formalin injected into the body was used to prevent desiccation and the salicylic acid was used to eliminate any fungi within the flesh and the zinc salt’s purpose was petrification.
7. Legend About Rosalia Lombardo Eye Blinks
The mummy of Rosalia Lombardo has continued to be notorious with the legend that her eyes appear to open and close several times a day and this phenomenon reveals her perfect intact blue irises. This is the reason she was nicknamed ‘Sleeping Beauty’ because it is believed by most visitors that with the blinking of her eyelids, she was only sleeping.
However, Piombino-Mascali, the curator of the catacombs stated that it is an optical illusion created by the light that filters in through the side windows of the catacomb, which is actually subject to change, during the day.
Piombino-Mascali also stated that Rosalia’s eyes are not completely closed and have never been.
8. Her body Was One Of The Last To Be Admitted Into The Catacombs Of Palermo
Rosalia Lombardo’s body is one of eight thousand mummies in the Capuchin catacombs of Sicily. Her body was mummified and was actually one of the last bodies to be admitted into the Capuchin catacombs of Palermo in Sicily.
9. Rosalia Lombardo’s Body Has Been In Almost Perfect Condition For Over A Century
Embalmer Alfredo Salafia performed a procedure on Rosalia Lombardo that should preserve her for eternity. All the ingredients Alfredo used to preserve the body give the body rigidity and essentially, turned it into wax, therefore, preserving the body over the years and for more years to come.
10. Rumors Of Rosalia’s Body Being Replaced
Due to the near-perfect nature of Rosalia’s body over the past century, so many rumors and speculation by skeptics have risen which disputes the fact that the body still enclosed in the glass case sitting in the chapel of the Capuchin catacombs is the original body of Rosalia mummified over a 100 years ago.
These skeptics claimed that the real body was replaced with a realistic wax replica. However, as this theory became a topic of a History Channel documentary in the 2000s, x-ray equipment was taken to the catacomb, and the body of Rosalia was x-rayed for the first time in its existence.
It was discovered after the x-ray there was still the existence of her skeletal structure and all her organs were still intact. Rosalia’s brain was also perfectly visible and due to the mummification process had shrunken but only to about 50%.
