My friend was telling me about how, in the Eastern Orthodox church, one of the possible marks of sainthood is being incorruptible after death, meaning that the body does not decay after death. Do any of you know any more about this?
This has been a mark of sainthood in Christianity since at least late Antiquity. The miraculous incorruptibility of the flesh was tied to the incorruptibility of the soul and its place in Heaven. There are many examples in hagiographic texts of saints' graves being opened up years later so that their remains might be translated (ie. moved to a new resting place) and the onlookers finding a perfectly preserved, sweet-smelling corpse.