Did you know that the disembodied heart was venerated within religions like Roman Catholicism and Buddhism in the past? This was part of a custom based on the idea that the veneration of a relic (part of the mortal remains of a saint or venerable person), brought greater glory to them. Frederic Chopin’s (1810-49) heart, for example, was brought back to his native Poland, at his request, following his death in Paris. M. de Voltaire’s (1694-1778) brain and heart are preserved in the National Library in Paris following his death. The heart of the King of England, Richard I (1157-99) (nicknamed “the Lionheart”), lies in the Notre Dame Church, Rouen, France. Irish lawyer and politician, Daniel O’Connell (1775-1847), the first Catholic M.P. since the Reformation in the British House of Commons, died in Genoa. He asked that his heart would go to Rome, his body to Ireland and his soul to heaven. The heart, encased in a silver casket, disappeared almost one hundred years later and has never been found.