The "Pudridero" or rotting casket, in the Crypts of the Cathedral of Mexico

When the Archbishop of the Dioceses of Mexico dies, he is not let to "sleep in peace," like everyone else. He is put to one final test: "el pudridero" or a special casket in which the body of the person is left to decompose naturally.

When we were admitted last year on a private tour of the crypts of the deceased archbishops and cardinals of the Dioceses of Mexico City, we saw the pudridero or special casket where all former archbishops have been buried, for a lapse of 25 years, and after the flesh is completely decomposed, the bones are set apart for final burial in a crypt.

 

But at least in one case we discovered that not all bodies of the decease have decomposed. Such is the case of Archbishop Martinez.

The crypt and final resting place of Fray Juan de Zumarraga,

First Archbishop of Mexico

The central casket of the hall of the Crypts

 in the basement of the Cathedral,

lies on top of an Aztec artifact.

 

Heraldic symbols of former archbishop of Mexico City

 

The tomb of one of the former Cardinal of Mexico,

Luis Maria Martinez 1881 1956

His body lays incorrupt.

The grown zero point of the Grand Tenochtitlan

In the basement of the Cathedral of Mexico City