Faith and Forensic: A Case Study by Cristoforo Pomara in JFSCI - Juniper Publishers
Little is known concerning the life of Fortunato of Serracapriola (a small town of countryside of Foggia- Puglia Region), an historical figure venerated as a Saint by the Catholic Church, particularly about the manner of his death. The first document on San Fortunato is an official letter written by Pope Innocent XI in 1687. With this letter the skeletal remains were donated to a local cardinal Carafa, after the removal from the catacombs ofthe family of Pope Pontianus in Rome, where initially conserved, and where these were identified by an inscription on the tombstone: "Fortunato Christi Martyris". Although no historical references are made to St. Fortunato's martyrdom, his death is dated back to the persecution of Christians under Maximinus Thrax, the Roman Emperor from 235 AD: in the historical reports, he was described, and so figurated, as a blond young boy not very tall (Figure 1A) [1]. In 1761 St. Fortunato was dubbed patron "minus principalis" of Serracapriola in 2010 (250 years later), and was exhumed (Figure 1B & 1C) by mandate of the clergy for historical analysis and exhibition. To the best of our knowledge, it is rare that a forensic multidisciplinary approach is request by the Catholic Church to study an historical figure venerated as a Saint. As previously described, radiological study was carried out with anthropological multi-slice computed tomography.
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