When the body of Father Charles de Foucald was exhumed, one year after burial, for transfer to another site, his friend General Laperrine was astonished to find that the body was without any break and the face quite recognizable, whereas of the two Arab guards murdered at the same time and buried near him only a little dust remained. One of the native soldiers then said, "Why are you astonished that he is thus preserved, General? It is not astonishing, since he was a great marabout (holy man)."
Foucald was a nineteenth-century Christian hermit of the Saharan desert, who sacrificed social position and fortune for an ascetic existence devoted to prayer, meditation, and service of the poor. His ascetic self-mortification was extremely severe.
To this case there may be added the somewhat similar cases of Swami Yogananda of Los Angeles, and Sri Aurobindo of Pondicherry. The ancient hatha yoga texts promise the successful yogi "the conquest of death." This does not mean he will not die, but that his flesh will not decay after death.
-- Notebooks Category 5: The Body > Chapter 2 : The Body > # 86
