Certain Saints, at the time of their death or many years later after they were exhumed, were found to be incorruptable. That is to say, their bodies did not decompose. In many cases this was before any embalming or mummification pratices were used in Europe, so there is no scientific explaination for this lack of decay. In incorrupt saint can appear almost as if alive or may look like a mummy with darked skin drawn tight, but the body retains a suppleness and has no signs of decay. Some recent research has shown that a few saints thought to be incorrupt, were actually preserved through some process, but this is a small percentage of those saints called incorrupt.
Many incorrupt saints are on display in churches throughout Europe.
Not all saints incorrupt, and no one can figure out why those that are incorrupt have remained that way. The Russian Communists hoping to capture the imagination of the religious serfs of Russia, preserved Lenin's body and put it on display like an incorrupt saint. A patron is a benefactor or protector. Since very early in Church history, there were some saints regarded as protectors and intercessors for persons, churches and dioceses and for the Church universal. The name taken in Baptism and Confirmation is frequently of a patron saint.