{"id":9300,"date":"2017-07-23T20:40:11","date_gmt":"2017-07-23T20:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/?p=9300"},"modified":"2017-07-24T14:27:04","modified_gmt":"2017-07-24T14:27:04","slug":"did-a-saint-blink-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/did-a-saint-blink-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Did A Saint Blink?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Now what about the preserved corpse of a saint that supposedly “blinked” at a visitor and camera recently? Creepy or holy (or a hoax)?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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It has to do with St. Inocencia, allegedly killed by a father who (details on the saint are very uncertain) was enraged when she embraced the Catholic faith, receiving First Communion. That was three centuries ago.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Originally in Rome, perhaps in the catacombs, her body was exhumed in 1786 and acquired by a wealthy priest, the remains later brought to the Cathedral of Guadalajara in Mexico. At least, that’s one account.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The London Mirror —\u00a0<\/em>which made much of it, as did other newspapers, last week — described a video clip of what occurred not so much as holy as “terrifying,” reporting that t<\/strong>he corpse “bares her eyes for the first time in centuries during a film made by a visitor to the\u00a0Cathedral of Guadalajara in Mexico, where she is kept.\u00a0The corpse, which has been preserved in wax, looks straight into the camera during the eerie moment.”<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Added a website called\u00a0Little Things:<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>“The short clip \u2014 which purports she has come ‘back from the dead \u2014 has gone massively viral with more than 800,000 YouTube views. While some\u00a0viewers believe it\u2019s a haunting display of paranormal activity, others\u00a0say\u00a0it\u2019s all a cleverly designed hoax. One commentator says, ‘If you zoom in you can see he edited the image, the eyes are fake.’ Another writes, ‘Yes, it looks like her eyes open towards the end of the video but how can it be possible?'”<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Now let’s be blunt.<\/span> This is either a flagrant stunt; a holy miracle, remarkable even by the standards of miracles (the saint giving a sign); or a trickster (spirit) using the situation to freak visitors out.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The cathedral, it’s noted by another outlet,\u00a0\u00a0Latinflyer.com<\/a>, is home to various altars, as well as the remains of three cardinals and multiple bishops (there\u2019s even the heart of a Mexican president here). <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s the mummified remains of one little girl \u2014 known only as Santa Inocencia, or Saint Innocence \u2014 who attracts the most curious gazes, as well as some of the most passionate prayers from visitors,\u201d it says. \u201cThe glass case containing her body, located near the front entrance of the church, never fails to attract attention.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

As it turns out,<\/span> the true story behind how Santa Inocencia\u00a0arrived to rest publicly in Guadalajara\u2019s cathedral is very much open to debate.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

According to one legend, when her father disappeared, neighbors discovered her body and carried it to the cathedral. By this rendition, she apparently was a local girl, still wearing the white dress for her First Communion.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Image\u201cAnother story \u2014 the one told on the small sign in the cathedral \u2014 claims that the\u00a0remains of the little girl were taken out of a cemetery in Rome in 1786, and sent in 1788 to Don Vicente Flores Alatorre, a Catholic church dignitary who taught divinity at the Guadalajara cathedral,” says \u00a0Latinflyer.com.<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

“Flores gave the remains to the Augustinas de Santa Monica convent in Guadalajara. After the convent shut down, the diocesan seminary began using the facility in 1869, and seminary members found the little girl\u2019s remains in the chapel. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

“The\u00a0seminary was evicted and moved to the San Sebasti\u00e1n de Analco temple in 1915, taking\u00a0Santa Inocencia along to the new location. When the\u00a0seminarians were kicked out of that site\u00a0too, in 1924, the Archbishop D. Francisco Orozco y Jim\u00e9nez decided that the body should be moved to the Guadalajara cathedral. Santa Inocencia took her current place in the cathedral in 1925.”<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In another<\/em> version,<\/span> she was tortured and killed by Roman Legionnaires when Christianity started to rise in Europe. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Let’s just stick with the official historical accounts of this holy child and leave it and her body, however it got there, in the trustworthy hands of the Church…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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