Scientists recently examined the body and heart of 13th century Italian Saint Rose of Viterbo, who was said to have miraculous powers. While it had been believed she died of tuberculosis as a teen, the new evidence suggests it was a congenital heart defect called Cantrell's syndrome.

LONDON — For thousands of Catholics, the 13th-century Italian Saint Rose of Viterbo had miraculous powers that allowed her to raise someone from the dead and survive the flames of a burning pyre.

Scientists examining the saint's mummified body now say she had a congenital heart defect that might have ultimately killed her as a teenager.

Ruggero D'Anastasio of the G. d'Annunzio University in Chieti, Italy, and colleagues analyzed pictures and X-rays of the medieval saint's preserved heart, which looks like a petrified lump of rock.

They suspect Saint Rose died of Cantrell's syndrome, a rare heart disorder, rather than tuberculosis, as previously thought. The research was published Friday in the British medical journal Lancet.

To get the X-rays, D'Anastasio and his team took a portable machine to Santa Rosa monastery in Viterbo, near Rome, where Saint Rose's heart is kept in a reliquary. Her body was mummified separately.

D'Anastasio said he and the monastery's officials were particularly keen to find out what killed the patron saint of people in exile, as she was only about 18 years old when she died. "We found a blockage in her heart that was most probably fatal," he said, adding there was no evidence of tuberculosis.

Frank Ruehli of the University of Zurich and the Swiss Mummy project called the diagnosis "extraordinary." He was not linked to the research.

Ruehli hypothesized the heart syndrome might have given Saint Rose an enlarged organ or made its pumping slightly visible beneath the skin. "People might have been aware of her being special in a medical sense," he said.

Ruehli said it was impossible to know how severe Saint Rose's heart disorder was, but that it might have strengthened her link to followers if they recognized there was something different about her.

Others said it was an interesting footnote but likely would not change much about our understanding of Saint Rose or the heart defect itself.