Each canonized saint stands behind at least one miracle examined by the Church's medical and theological panels. These are the wonder-events themselves — incorrupt bodies, levitations, bilocations, canonization cures. The saints' own lives are chronicled in the Saints section.
The Iron Crown of Lombardy
The Iron Crown of the Lombard kings — worn at the coronation of Charlemagne (774), Charles V (1530), Napoleon (1805) and thirty-two other monarchs — carries, according to tradition, an inner iron band forged from a nail of the True Cross given by St. Helena to her son Constantine. The crown, kept at Monza Cathedral since about 590 AD, was moved to Vienna during the Napoleonic dispersal (1859) and returned by Emperor Franz Josef in 1866; it survived World War II sealed in a wall.
Recovery of the True Cross by Heraclius
Persian troops sacked Jerusalem in 614 and carried off the relic of the True Cross. Fifteen years later Emperor Heraclius defeated Chosroes II, recovered the relic intact, and personally carried it barefoot back into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
The Manna of St. Nicholas at Bari
Since the translation of St. Nicholas's relics from Myra to Bari in 1087, a clear watery liquid — called the 'Manna of St. Nicholas' — has continuously seeped from the bones of the saint. Collected each May 9 by the Dominicans and distributed to pilgrims worldwide.
The Incorrupt Tongue of St. Anthony of Padua
When the body of St. Anthony was exhumed by St. Bonaventure 32 years after his death, the tongue, jaw, and vocal cords of the great preacher were found incorrupt — still venerated in the Basilica of St. Anthony.
The Manna of St. Andrew at Amalfi
From the relics of St. Andrew the Apostle — translated from Constantinople to Amalfi in 1208 after the Fourth Crusade — has continuously seeped a fragrant liquid called the 'Manna of St. Andrew,' documented since 1304 and collected several times each year.
The Liquefaction of the Blood of St. Januarius (San Gennaro)
Two vials of dried, dark, solid blood — from St. Januarius, beheaded under Diocletian in 305 — liquefy and bubble during public veneration three times each year in Naples. Documented continuously since 1389; failure to liquefy is regarded by Neapolitans as ominous.
The Incorrupt Body of St. Rita of Cascia
The Augustinian nun and 'saint of impossible causes' was found incorrupt at her death in 1457 — and remains visible in the Basilica of Cascia today, with the wound from the thorn she received in mystical union with Christ's crown of thorns still visible on her forehead.
The Incorrupt Seated Body of St. Catherine of Bologna
Poor Clare abbess, mystic, and writer (d. 1463). Her body has been preserved upright in a gilt chair for over five centuries, in the position in which she was originally buried — still visible in Bologna.
The Incorrupt Body of St. Catherine of Genoa
The widowed Genoese noblewoman who served the plague-stricken in the great Pammatone Hospital and wrote the Treatise on Purgatory was found incorrupt 18 months after her 1510 death — and has remained so for over five centuries.
The Incorrupt Body of St. Francis Xavier
The Jesuit apostle of the East died on a Chinese island in 1552. When his body — provisionally buried in lime to accelerate decomposition — was disinterred two months later, it was found completely incorrupt, fresh, and fragrant. Translated to Goa, it remains visible.
The Incorrupt Body of St. Cecilia
Roman virgin and martyr (c. 230). Her body was rediscovered uncorrupted at the catacombs of San Callisto in 822 and again in 1599 — the inspiration for Stefano Maderno's celebrated marble of the saint lying on her side.
The North American Martyrs
Eight French Jesuits — Isaac Jogues, Jean de Brébeuf, René Goupil, John de Lalande, Anthony Daniel, Charles Garnier, Noel Chabanel, and Gabriel Lalemant — were tortured and killed in the Iroquois–Huron wars between 1642 and 1649. Canonized together in 1930 by Pius XI.
The Incorrupt Body of St. Vincent de Paul
Founder of the Vincentians and the Daughters of Charity (d. 1660). His body was exhumed in 1712 and 1737 and found intact. The face is now masked in silver; his heart is preserved as a separate relic.
The Body of St. Camillus de Lellis Survives Fire at Santa Maria Maddalena
St. Camillus de Lellis (1550–1614) — founder of the Ministers of the Infirm and patron of the sick and of nurses — is buried at Santa Maria Maddalena in Rome. His body has survived multiple fires at the church — including a serious sacristy fire in 1794 — and successive exhumations (1749, 1889) documented substantial preservation. His preserved incorrupt heart, extracted in 1749, is enshrined separately at the mother house of the Camillians on Via Guiseppe Cerbara.
The Incorrupt Body of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
The Visitation Sister who received the Sacred Heart apparitions died in 1690. Her body was disinterred in 1830 — 139 years later — and found largely intact. She lies visible today at the Basilica of Paray-le-Monial, beneath the chapel of her apparitions.
The Incorrupt Heart of St. John Vianney
St. John Vianney (1786–1859) — the Curé d'Ars — was exhumed in 1904, forty-five years after his death. His body was found substantially preserved; his heart was removed and enshrined separately at the Shrine of St. John Vianney at Ars. The heart, still incorrupt, has since traveled to over sixty dioceses on relic tours and is credited with numerous documented healings.
Mother Cabrini's Spring at West Park
Frances Cabrini bought a wooded ridge near West Park, NY for an orphanage but the property had no water. She struck the ground three times with her cane; a spring rose at each point. The spring still flows.
The Incorrupt Body of St. Charbel Makhlouf and the Cures at Annaya
The Maronite hermit-monk of Annaya died on Christmas Eve 1898. For forty-five nights a light was seen over his grave; on exhumation in 1899 his body was found incorrupt and exuding a blood-and-water-like fluid, confirmed at further exhumations in 1927, 1950 and 1965. The monastery has kept a register of cures attributed to him since 1950 — over 29,000 depositions by 2024 — and Charbel is the most venerated saint of the Middle East.
The Incorrupt Body of St. Vincent Pallotti
The Roman priest who founded the Society of the Catholic Apostolate (Pallottines) and the lay apostolic movement that prefigured the Second Vatican Council was found incorrupt 56 years after his death. He remains visible today at the small Roman church of San Salvatore in Onda.
The Incorrupt Body of St. Bernadette
St. Bernadette's body, exhumed three times, was found remarkably preserved. She is still on display at the convent of Saint-Gildard in Nevers.
The Body of St. John Bosco
The founder of the Salesians — the great 19th-century apostle of street children and the working class — was exhumed 41 years after his death in preparation for his beatification. The body was found substantially preserved; it is now visible above the main altar of his great Turin basilica.
The Body of St. Maria Goretti
The 11-year-old girl-martyr who forgave her attacker before dying of stab wounds in 1902 was exhumed 27 years later in preparation for her beatification. The body was substantially preserved; she lies today in the basilica at Nettuno on the Mediterranean coast.
The Incorrupt Body of St. Catherine Labouré
Visionary of the Miraculous Medal (1830). When her tomb was opened on 21 March 1933, fifty-seven years after her death, her body, her eyes and her clothing were found intact — and she lies today in a glass reliquary above the side altar of the Rue du Bac chapel, the eyes that saw the Virgin still open.
The Healings at the Door of St. Bonaventure Monastery — Detroit
For more than thirty years, the simple Capuchin porter Solanus Casey received the sick and troubled at the door of St. Bonaventure Monastery in Detroit. He was not licensed to preach; he could not hear confessions. He blessed people, prayed for them, and recorded their needs. Twenty thousand documented healings — physical and spiritual — are attributed to his prayers.
The Tomb of St. Francis in the 1997 Umbria Earthquake
Two earthquakes of magnitude 5.7 and 6.1 struck Umbria on September 26, 1997. The Upper Basilica of St. Francis collapsed in part during aftershocks — killing four people, including two Franciscans and two engineers surveying the damage. The tomb of St. Francis in the crypt, the tomb of St. Clare at Santa Chiara, and the two lower basilicas were unharmed. The nave's Cimabue and Giotto frescoes required years of restoration.
The Body of Pope St. John XXIII Found Preserved (2001)
Pope John XXIII (Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, 1881–1963) — who summoned the Second Vatican Council — was exhumed from the Vatican grottoes on January 16, 2001 for translation to the upper basilica in preparation for his beatification. His body, embalmed by Prof. Gennaro Goglia in 1963 but stored for thirty-eight years, was found substantially preserved. He now lies in a crystal casket beneath the altar of St. Jerome in St. Peter's Basilica, visible to pilgrims.
St. Carlo Acutis — Patron of the Internet
An Italian teenager and computer programmer who built the world's first online catalog of Eucharistic miracles before dying of leukemia at 15. Canonized by Pope Leo XIV on 7 September 2025 — the first millennial saint.
The Exhumation and Display of St. Padre Pio (2008)
When the body of St. Padre Pio was exhumed forty years after his death in preparation for permanent public veneration, it was found 'in excellent condition,' substantially preserved — the hands visible without their fingerless gloves for the first time since 1918.