Catholic ritual enacted for reburial of Copernicus

Calcutta News.Net
Sunday 23rd May, 2010

The long dead Polish astronomer, Nicolaus Copernicus, has been reburied.

The reburial, in Poland, was part of a lavish Catholic ceremony in which his remains were interred beneath the altar of Frombork Cathedral in northern Poland.

Reburied 467 years after his death, Copernicus is back in the church where he had once been the head priest.

The start of the ritual began as a processional journey from Olsztyn Castle in February, with extended stops at several sites in Poland.

His remains were not conclusively identified until 2005, when DNA testing proved his lineage.

Best known for his work, "On the Revolution of the Celestial Spheres," Copernicus was the first to suggest that the earth revolved around the sun, which was contrary to belief at the time that the earth was the centre of the universe.

While his theory was viewed with suspicion by the Church, it eventually became a cornerstone for other scientists, one of whom, Italian cleric Giordano Bruno, was burned at the stake as a heretic in 1600.

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