Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 66-68. (Budapest, 1973)
TANULMÁNYOK - Katona Imre: A pápai bencés templom kriptája
Molnár Ernő : A pápai pálos templom. Bp. 1942. Klny. a Gerevich-Emlékkönyvből. 152-159. 1. Molnár István : Egy elfelejtett és befalazott lakóhelyen. (A bencéstemplom kriptájának lakói között.) Pápa és Vidéke, 1942. nov 8. P. Eggerer, Andreas : Fragmen panis corvi protoeremitici seu reliquiae Annalium Eremi-Coenobiticorum Ordinis Fratrum Eremitarum S. Pauli I. Eremitae . . . (Wien, 1(363.) Gyöngyösi, Gregorius : Vitae Fratrum Ordinis Fratrum Heremitarum S. Pauli primi heremitae. (cca. 1530.) Summary In the vault under the Benedictine church at Pápa (Western Hungary) there are several intact mummified bodies. The double oak coffin of the noted diocesan bishop Ádám Acsády, the builder of the church, lies in the middle surrounded by Pauline friars while the coffins of the laymen lie beside or above each other in the oval ambulatory under the nave. The whole vault at present contains 110 coffins. The remains from the mouldered coffins have been placed in an ossary. But on a number of bodies one can hardly see any mark left by time, although the coffins have been moved several times. Not only the corpses but their clothes, footwear and the various objects placed in the coffin have also remained intact. The Benedictine church was originally owned by the Pauline order which had settled at Pápa in 1638. The present building was erected between 1736 and 1842, but some of the dead were transferred from the old church into the new vault. We have tried to collect the names, and the biographical data of the persons buried here on the basis of the inscription on the coffins and other available documents. Their list is arranged in the order of the time of their deaths. Several sources support the thesis that mummification was not infrequent in mediaeval Hungary. Most of the cases occur in the chronicles of the Pauline monks as they —in accordance with the regulations of their order—regularly recorded data on the state of the body after death. There is no contemporary account on the conditions in the crypt of the Pauline monastery, as the order was dissolved by Joseph II and the Benedictines occupying their place were concerned mainly with the inner life of the monks and with the maintenance of the school. In the vault of the Benedictine church the temperature shows little variation in the various seasons and consequently there is little change in the movement of the air. The mummification can be explained mainly by the air movement, the stable temperature, and the favourable humidity. These, taken together, create unfavourable conditions for the bacteria which cause decay. Similar mummifications occured in the vaults in Kiev and Brno, too.
