The Capuchin Friars thought they knew something about the dead. After all, their

holy order was entrusted with caring for the sick and dying in their community of Palermo

Italy. They had been at it for decades and were considered resident experts on post-mortem

care. But when it came to their own dead, it turned out that nothing would go according to plan.

In 1534, when they relocated from far off Elbechina,

they immediately got to work constructing a collective below-ground cistern-like crypt.

This particular monastic order practiced a tradition called the second burial.

When a person died, they would be allowed to decompose, unburied for some time.

That was the first burial.

When a friar died, his body would be laid on his shelf to drip dry, draining himself of all

of his liquid.

Then, once the soft bits, like flesh and other tissues, were gone, the dried bones

would be taken and installed within the holy walls of the Orders Church.

That's the second burial.

So as the years went on, the friars stashed more and more of their own bodies in their

crypt, waiting for the day the space would hit max capacity.

The brothers planned to eventually go collect

the bones for Phase 2, where they'd be brought up into the church. In October of 1599,

some friars descended down into the belly of their crypt. Here, they found something that had

been whispered about over the years. These bodies hadn't fully decomposed at all. In fact,

it seems that their decomposition

had simply been arrested. How could this be? Instead of finding skeletons, they recognized their

...