Former pope exploded while on display after embalming went horribly wrong

On October 9, 1958, at the age of 82, Pope Pius XII died in Castel Gandolfo, the papal residence on the outskirts of Rome, after three days of rapid decline in his health. Far from the solemn Catholic tradition, which usually prolongs the body's exposure so that the faithful pay homage, the corpse of Eugenio Pacelli unleashed a series of incidents as unusual as dramatic.Instead of the expected recollection and reverence, the state of the body fo…

Former pope exploded while on display after embalming went horribly wrong

Pope Pius XII decided to have his internal organs kept inside his corpse, completely unpreserved

The funeral of Pius XII in 1958 was a nightmare: his body exploded after a botched embalming, sparking outrage in the Vatican. Vatican City. The recent death of Pope Francis has revived one of the darkest episodes in modern Vatican history: the dramatic funeral of Pope Pius XII. Eugenio Pacelli, who led the Catholic Church from 1939 to 1958, not only left a profound mark as a pontiff, but also a haunting memory for the way his body was treated a…

Where were you on October 9, 1958? If you were alive and of the age to understand it, you may remember that this date marks the death of Pius XII, 260th pope who led Christians around the world between 1939 and 1958. If some remember his spiritual struggle against Nazism, others remember his funeral...explosive. An experimental embalming As is customary, once the pope is dead, long before the conclave gathers to designate his successor, the fune…