# embalmed pope **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 4, 2005, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embalmed-pope/297642 "2005-04-04T10:53:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Weeks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbce88/32.png) [@Weeks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weeks)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embalmed-pope/297642/1 "2005-04-04T10:53:07Z")
So , what did they do with all the popes blood? Let it run down some drain? Save it to sell on Ebay? Certainly it was gathered up along with the rest of him…do they bury it with him? What about the flushed through embalming fluid? IANAUndertaker, but it seems there would have to be flushed through fluid. Man oh man, I’ll bet there’s a lot of wierd-o’s who would love to get their hands on some of that stuff. What do they do with a dead pope? ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embalmed-pope/297642/2 "2005-04-04T11:58:30Z")
They embalm him, and quickly. While I cannot answer as to what happens to his blood, I can assure you they embalm him before he gets too cold. The reason is When Pius XII and Paul VI died, the embalmers screwed up. Pius was a mess. His body turned purple and his nose fell off before he was buried. Nasty, nasty, nasty. People were vomiting from the stink. Paul VI to a lesser degree, but then in an Italian summer you want to get that guy drained and gelled ASAP. Hope that helps. ---
**Author:** ![Waverly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/57b2e6/32.png) [@Waverly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waverly)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embalmed-pope/297642/3 "2005-04-04T12:25:29Z")
Hmm. Interesting question. If the pope ever gets canonized, like the throngs he himself brought over to sainthood, his blood would be an important relic. They propbably saved it. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embalmed-pope/297642/4 "2005-04-04T15:37:43Z")
> [@Weeks](#): > > Certainly it was gathered up along with the rest of him. Was it? How do you know? ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embalmed-pope/297642/5 "2005-04-04T16:28:15Z")
_…He looks like he’s asleep, It’s a shame that he won’t keep, But it’s summer and we’re runnin’ out of ice…_ ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embalmed-pope/297642/6 "2005-04-04T20:04:54Z")
> [@Paul in Saudi](#): > > Pius was a mess. His body turned purple and his nose fell off before he was buried. Nasty, nasty, nasty. People were vomiting from the stink. Heavens to Betsy! How long did they wait before Pius was interred? I can’t believe you’d lose a nose in a week (unless you’re Michael Jackson). ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embalmed-pope/297642/7 "2005-04-04T21:50:47Z")
The Guardian in 2001 had this about John XXIII’s embalming > [@](#): > > Ten litres of embalming fluid - including ethyl alcohol, formalin, sodium sulphate and potassium nitrate - were filtered through a plastic tube into John’s wrist and stomach hours after his death on June 3 1963. Other sources that the embalming is done by physicians, not morticians. ---
**Author:** ![Weeks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbce88/32.png) [@Weeks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weeks)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embalmed-pope/297642/8 "2005-04-04T23:22:15Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > Was it? How do you know? You’re kidding me , right? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embalmed-pope/297642/9 "2005-04-04T23:34:48Z")
I saw the extensive news coverage of John Paul II’s dead body being carried through the streets and put on display and, may I say, they went a _little_ heavy on the lipstick? Why do morticians _always_ do such a bad job with the makeup? ---
**Author:** ![Catalyst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@Catalyst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catalyst)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embalmed-pope/297642/10 "2005-04-04T23:50:01Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Why do morticians _always_ do such a bad job with the makeup? The clients never complain? ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2005, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embalmed-pope/297642/11 "2005-04-05T01:26:46Z")
You know, there was a mummy documentary on the History Channel (or was it the “Science” channel? I dunno) awhile back that claimed that even a piece of John Paul II’s intestine that was surgically removed after he was shot was saved and embalmed, to be eventually buried with him. The logic being that when he’s ressurected, he’d need all of his parts, or something. I don’t know if they were going to re-insert the intestine, or just put it in a canopic jar, or what. I don’t know what they’d do if a Pope got elected who had donated a kidney to his twin brother, or if he wanted to donate his organs after his death, or anything like that. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2005, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embalmed-pope/297642/12 "2005-04-05T02:04:41Z")
**Eve** , I had the same impression right off the bat, too. Then again, old Karol W. probably instructed to Curia to NOT get a special makeup artist, but just use whoever was on the shift at the VC mortuary. **Ranchoth** , whatever you saw on the BS Channel, it is _ **NOT** _ a Catholic doctrine in any way that the Pope, or anyone, must go to the Earth with all his organs for the sake of the Resurrection: on Judgement Day you will be given a miraculously restored body anyway. What the RCC (and many other denominations) does frown upon is the idea of the body being destroyed then discarded as waste. ISTM the real reason to want all pieces of JP-2 to go into the crypts is in order to have full control over any potential relics; precisely, to avoid having HH’s spleen end up on E-Bay. Or better yet, so that if _nineteen_ Pontificial spleens end up on e-Bay, they can do a quick check and verify that they still got the original, sealed canopic jar (and yes, that’s where the Papal Innards go). And there being in circulation among us some really impressive examples of twisted psyches, any organ donation from a sitting (or freshly flatlined) Pope would have to be not just double, but quadruple-blinded along the way, as we would not want the lucky recipient to become the quarry of some whackadoodle cult somewhere, trying to pilfer the Papal organ from its new user… ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2005, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embalmed-pope/297642/13 "2005-04-05T09:31:45Z")
_The Times_ has this brief article discussing who probably did the embalming and the issue of the internal organs. [Body ‘was preserved’ before going on display](http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,20709-1555183,00.html) ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2005, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embalmed-pope/297642/14 "2005-04-05T11:50:54Z")
In former times, it was believed that very saintly persons would be found to have NOT DECAYED, sometimes centuries after their deaths. This was ascribed to som special favor from God. Is this belief still current? I know that in medieval times, tombs of saints and popes wereopened, and the bodies examined. I wonder if the RC church has done this recently, or if it is a tradition that has been discarded. ---
**Author:** ![seosamh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@seosamh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seosamh)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2005, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embalmed-pope/297642/15 "2005-04-05T12:03:50Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > **Ranchoth** , whatever you saw on the BS Channel, it is _ **NOT** _ a Catholic doctrine in any way that the Pope, or anyone, must go to the Earth with all his organs for the sake of the Resurrection: on Judgement Day you will be given a miraculously restored body anyway. The late, great irish comedian Dave Allen used to do a routine about the Rev Ian Paisley who, as usual, is giving it some hellfire & brimstone during a sermon about Judgment Day. He concludes with the words “There will be a weeping and a wailing and a gnashing of teeth!” (Matthew 13:50, ish). A little old lady in the congregation looks up at him and says, gummily, “What about those of us who haven’t any teeth?” Paisley asserts: “TEETH WILL BE PROVIDED!” ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2005, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embalmed-pope/297642/16 "2005-04-05T14:59:31Z")
On Larry King the other night there was some guy (ack…no clue who. A young preist or something) as a guest and he held up a vial of some previous Pope’s blood that he kept with him and was meaningful to him. Not sure if it’s a common thing to do, to vial up all the Pope’s blood, but at least one guy had it done. ---
**Author:** ![phall0106](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phall0106/32/5934_2.png) [@phall0106](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phall0106)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2005, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embalmed-pope/297642/17 "2005-04-05T15:05:00Z")
…_Thinking of the ramifications of receiving a donated Pope organ…_ ---
**Author:** ![butler1850](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@butler1850](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butler1850)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embalmed-pope/297642/18 "2005-04-06T18:50:00Z")
> [@phall0106](#): > > …_Thinking of the ramifications of receiving a donated Pope organ…_ I wonder where you’d get lessons on how to play that? -Butler (Yes, I know, I’m on my way to hell) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Mermaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@The\_Mermaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Mermaid)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embalmed-pope/297642/19 "2005-04-06T21:29:19Z")
I believe with virtually all embalmings the blood is removed and treated as medical waste. I don’t know if there is a special procedure for Popes. ---
**Author:** ![Tenar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@Tenar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenar)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embalmed-pope/297642/20 "2005-04-06T23:34:29Z")
> [@phall0106](#): > > …_Thinking of the ramifications of receiving a donated Pope organ…_ Unless you were planning to use it as some sort of cunning decorative accent in your Great Room (God, I do love how pretentious “Great Room” sounds), I’d advise against it. I gather the Pope’s organs were in a pretty general state of collapse at the time he surrendered the use of them. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embalmed-pope/297642.md?page=2)