Nicolaus Rungius

Nicolaus Matthiae Rungius (also spelled Ryngius or Ryngen in contemporary sources; born in Loimaa – died 1629 in Keminmaa) was a Finnish Lutheran vicar who served Kemi Parish in northern Finland during the early seventeenth century. He worked as a chaplain in the Nykarleby and Keminmaa churches.

Condition and preservation

Nearly 400 years after his death, Rungius's body remains naturally mummified beneath St. Michael's Church in Keminmaa. Much of his skin, hair, muscles, tendons and ligaments have survived, together with some internal soft tissues, although the body has shrunk and darkened as it dried over the centuries. His head is detached from the torso, and one forearm disappeared after 1875, probably after being removed as a relic.

Unusually, Rungius's body was not intentionally protected from decomposition, but rather naturally mummified beneath the church floor. The body still retained two arms by 1875, but one of them has since disappeared, apparently taken as a relic.