The autopsy was performed by Dr. Antonio Luis de Sousa Sobrinho, Director of the Services of Health and Hygiene and Professor Dr. João Manuel Pacheco de Figueiredo, Director of the Medical and Surgical School of Goa.
ANNEX 2: Autopsy report
Document of the Exam of the Venerable Body of St. Francis Xavier. (Confidential). On the 23rd of June 1951, at 8:30, upon the invitation of His Excellency Reverend Patriarch of the Indies, D. José da Costa Nunes, in the Sacristy of the Basilica of the Bom Jesus, the doctors Antonio Luis de Sousa Sobrinho, Director of the Services of Health and Hygiene of the Estado da Índia, and João Manuel Pacheco de Figueiredo, Director of the Medical and Surgical School of Goa, met in order to proceed to examine the venerable Body of St. Francis Xavier that was closed inside the coffin of wood arranged on a table. The seals were broken and the coffin was opened by His Excellency Reverend the Patriarch, His Excellency in Charge of General Government, Dr. Manuel Marques de Abrantes Amaral and His Excellency the Reverend Archbishop Coadjutor (Assistant) D. José Vieira Alvernaz, Archbishop of Anazartha, being present also the Reverend Canon Aires Franklin de Sa, Administrator of the Basilica, who observed that the Body of the Saint was found dressed in his sacerdotal vestments with the head flexed towards the thorax and the left forearm and hand with its fingers half flexed, resting transversally across the chest. The objective of the exam was directed in first place to those accessible regions, that is, those not covered by the vestments, like the head, left hand, and the feet.
HEAD: The occipital and parietal left sides are denuded [bare] but
perfectly conserved. The parietal and frontal sides present themselves dressed in dry withered skin with some signs of destruction on them and there are seen a few rare hairs attached to the body by skin, where they appear to be encrusted. The side presents a perforation underneath the right arch. The prominence of the molar regions and that of the ocular globes is conserved, being able to distinguish the eyelids of the right eye. The small nose is well conserved, being the right nasal bone dislocated backwards and the earlobe of the same side a little worn out. The orifices of the nasal passages are visible. The relief of the mouth is conserved, the lips half open, with the musculature and skin in the direction of destruction, leaving to see the distinctiveness of the inferior incisors, small and regular, being the second left one dislocated backwards. Rare hairs of the beard on the left side being, like on the head, attached with skin to the body. The right ear is conserved. The outer lobe of the right ear doesn’t exist, noting in the temporal maxillary region, of the same side, in consequence of the destruction of skin, three large orifices, one of which the major one, corresponds to the location of the implantation of the outer lobe. Across these orifices are clearly visible the bones.
LEFT HAND: Resting with palm side on the chest, with the fingers half-flexed, muscular substances and conserved skin. Dorsal side: some flexible tendons are distinguishable, being most clear and prominent at the extension of the index finger. Only the thumb finger has a nail.
Palm Side: some flexible tendons are clearly distinguishable, with little flexibility of the veins.
LEFT FOOT: Dorsal side. Conserved masses of muscles, the tendons distinctive and the skin withered. The first and fifth toes are complete and with nails; absent are the digital bones on the second toe; the third toe is reduced to a plain morsel of cutaneous (pertaining to the skin) place; it is missing the bones and the fourth toe doesn’t have skin on the dorsal side. The sole of the foot is very well conserved, as well as the muscular masses that cover the heel that is on the path of destruction.
RIGHT FOOT: Of reformed aspect and in forced extension . The heel is dislocated inside. It does not have the last four toes. By the opening, the result is that they don’t exist, the insteps are visible, the muscle masses conserved, minus the posterior part which is destroyed in part and with faded skin. Some tendons are distinguishable, the big toe is prominent and without a nail. The major part of the skin of the sole is conserved.
Accordingly, by determination of His Excellency, the Reverend Patriarch, the vestments that covered the anterior part of the body were removed and he observed:
- The head was disarticulated, completely free resting on a pillow cushion and the cranial cavity empty.
- The left hand is articulated (joined) with the two bones of the forearm, maintaining the wholeness and articulation of the wrist. The bones of the forearm are losing their covered skin, of which was noted the third inferior, with small pieces of destruction.
- Maintained whole is the tibia joint of both sides of the inferior members, like on the forearm, the bones — tibia and fibula — on both sides, are covered in skin, with zones of destruction, only on the third inferior.
- The left tibia and fibula, in the superior extremity, are still conserved.
- The two femurs, have regressed to some small pieces of skin, and the kneecaps are jointed with the bones of the leg for half the length.
- Deposited in the central part of the coffin we found the following bones: a bone of the sternum, two clavicle bones, the left omoplate, the humer, 2 fragments of the ribs, 21 vertebrae (4 cervical, 12 dorsal, and 5 lombar) the sacrum, and the two ilialic bones with only 5 lumbar vertebra and the last dorsal jointed.
- Various discoloured pieces of skin, of which 5 were large, seeing clearly that the major was of the buttocks region. In order to reconstitute the skeleton, all the existing portions and those already mentioned were collected in order on a table, being for this end to arrange a wire in the vertebrae cavities to connect them. Reconstituting the skeleton by juxtaposing the bones, it was observed that the Body of the Saint, measured from the extremity of the first toe of the left foot to the top of the head, was 171 centimetres in length, and 162 centimetres when measured from head to the heel. Finally, all the parts of the Body, in appropriate order, but not jointed, and the 5 pieces of skin, were placed in the coffin and covered by the vestments that had been removed by reason of the exam. We declare that the Body doesn’t present any sign of putrefaction, nor of a bad smell. In the duration of the exam, several photographs were taken by J.P. Guerra.
From this exam, the minutes of this present act are drawn that is signed by us. Old Goa, Basilica of Bom Jesus, on the 23rd of June 1951. Signed: Antonio Luis de Souza Sobrinho, João Manuel Pacheco de Figueiredo and José Vieira Alvernaz, Archbishop of Anarta
