Had to be mid to late 50s. Cardinal Stritch of Chicago had his arm amputated. I’m almost sure I remember that he slept that night with the amputated arm. I can’t find any reference to it, so now I’m doubting my memory. Did it really happen? What’s the straight dope on this story?
Per his wiki bio, there were, at most, a few weeks between the amputation, a debilitating stroke and his death. I think this may have been a ‘let’s keep his parts in his room so they’re buried together, um, shortly’ situation. I doubt he was alert at the time.
In May 1958, a blood clot required the Cardinal’s right arm to be amputated above the elbow. Following the operation, he suffered a stroke on May 19, and died eight days later, at age 70.
I knew that the arm was amputated. My question was if he had slept in bed with the arm after it had been amputated.
First time ever. I’ve been on the SDMB for years. Never saw a question that did not eventually get a factual answer. While jnglmassiv did his part, I’m surprised that no one has been able to find a definitive bit of information. I’ll keep hoping. xo,
C.
There is a rather hagiographic biography of him called The Cardinal Stritch Story by Marie Cecilia Buehrle published in 1959. It doesn’t say anything about his sleeping with his own arm after the amputation, but I think I know how the story got started. The book does say “Throughout the night preceding the operation a major relic of the arm of St. Francis Xavier remained in the Cardinal’s room” (p. 182). That would have been the night of April 27-28, in Rome where the amputation was done.
The book says that after the surgery, he “revived with extraordinary resilience” and was in “excellent spirits and good physical condition.” After returning to Chicago, celebrated the mass on May 18, but then unexpectedly had a stroke on the night of May 18-19 (p. 187). Even after the stroke he was “perfectly lucid” (p. 188) and “showed some signs of rallying” (p. 189) and was able to speak a few words. He later took a turn for the worse and died on May 27 (p. 190).
The relic of St. Francis Xavier’s right forearm is normally housed in Il Gesu, the Jesuit mother church in Rome, but it sometimes goes on tour.
TL;DR version: He didn’t sleep with his own severed arm, because that would be creepy. He slept with somebody else’s severed arm, because that’s perfectly normal.