All stories
Guardian Angels · c. AD 44, during the reign of Herod Agrippa I
Peter Freed by the Angel
As Herod Agrippa I prepared to execute Peter, the Church prayed without ceasing, and an angel of the Lord entered the guarded prison by night, loosed his chains, and led him past two sets of guards and through an iron gate that opened of itself. Peter walked free into the city, certain only afterward that it had not been a vision.
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Acts of the Apostles · c. AD 30-33, fifty days after the Resurrection
Pentecost
Fifty days after the Resurrection, the Holy Spirit descends upon the apostles and Mary in the upper room as tongues of fire, filling them with power and the gift of languages, and Peter's proclamation that day draws three thousand into baptism. Pentecost marks the public birth of the Church and the beginning of the Spirit's age among men.
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Acts of the Apostles · c. AD 30–33, shortly after Pentecost
Peter at the Beautiful Gate
At the Temple's Beautiful Gate, Peter healed a man lame from birth in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and the man walked, leapt, and praised God before the astonished crowd. The miracle became Peter's occasion to preach Christ crucified and risen to all Israel.
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Acts of the Apostles · c. AD 34–36
The Conversion of Saul
On the road to Damascus, a light from heaven struck down Saul of Tarsus, persecutor of the Church, and the voice of the risen Christ confronted him; blinded for three days, he was healed and baptized through Ananias and became the apostle Paul. His conversion turned the Church's fiercest enemy into its most tireless missionary.
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Acts of the Apostles · c. AD 60, winter, during Paul's voyage to Rome
Paul and the Viper
Shipwrecked on Malta after fourteen days adrift in a storm, Paul was bitten by a viper while gathering firewood, yet suffered no harm, confounding the islanders who had first taken him for a murderer and then for a god. The sign opened the way for healings that won the whole island's hospitality.
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Eucharistic Miracles · 8th century (analysis: 1970–71, 1981)
The Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano
In the 8th century, a Basilian monk in Lanciano, Italy, doubting the Real Presence, saw the consecrated host visibly turn to flesh and the wine to blood during Mass. The relics have survived to the present day, and a 1970-71 scientific analysis by Prof. Odoardo Linoli identified the flesh as human cardiac tissue and the blood as type AB.
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Eucharistic Miracles · August 1996 (analysis: 1999–2000s)
The Eucharistic Miracle of Buenos Aires
In August 1996, a discarded consecrated host in a Buenos Aires parish, placed in water to dissolve as was customary, instead turned into what appeared to be bleeding flesh over several days. The case was handled personally by the parish's auxiliary bishop, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, and later scientific studies identified the tissue as living human heart muscle under inflammatory stress.
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Eucharistic Miracles · October 2008 (analysis and declaration: 2008–2009)
The Eucharistic Miracle of Sokółka
On October 12, 2008, a consecrated host dropped during Mass at St. Anthony's parish in Sokółka, Poland, was placed in water and later found to bear a red, tissue-like stain. Independent pathologists at the Medical University of Białystok identified the material as heart muscle tissue in a state characteristic of an agonal (dying) human heart, fused inseparably with the bread's structure.
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Exorcisms & Failed Sorcery · c. AD 53–55, during Paul's third missionary journey
The Sons of Sceva
In Ephesus, seven sons of a Jewish chief priest tried to expel a demon by invoking the name of Jesus as a magic formula, without faith or the Spirit who alone gives that Name its power; the possessed man overpowered and stripped them, and the terrified city burned its books of magic. The episode revealed that Christ's name cannot be wielded as a spell.
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Exorcisms & Failed Sorcery · c. AD 34–36, shortly after the martyrdom of Stephen
Simon Magus
Simon, a sorcerer who had astonished Samaria with magic, believed and was baptized under Philip's preaching, but then offered Peter and John money to purchase the power of imparting the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands. Peter rebuked him sharply, and the sorcerer's name became the root of the word 'simony,' the buying or selling of what belongs to God alone.
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Our Lady · December 1531
Our Lady of Guadalupe
In December 1531, near Mexico City, the Virgin Mary appeared to the Aztec convert Juan Diego on the hill of Tepeyac, leaving her image imprinted on his cactus-fiber cloak. The tilma survives nearly five centuries later, and generations of scientists have failed to explain how it was made or why it has not decayed.
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Our Lady · February–July 1858
Our Lady of Lourdes
Between February and July 1858, the Virgin Mary appeared eighteen times to fourteen-year-old Bernadette Soubirous at the grotto of Massabielle in Lourdes, France, revealing a spring that continues to flow. Since 1858, the Lourdes Medical Bureau has documented thousands of claimed cures, seventy of which the Church has formally recognized as miraculous.
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Our Lady · May 13 – October 13, 1917
Fátima and the Miracle of the Sun
From May to October 1917, the Virgin Mary appeared six times to three shepherd children in Fátima, Portugal, culminating on October 13 in a public solar phenomenon witnessed by an estimated 70,000 people, including secular journalists who had come expecting to debunk a hoax. The event was reported the next day in the Lisbon press.
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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 27-29, early Galilean ministry
The Wedding at Cana
At a village wedding in Galilee, the wine runs out and the feast totters on the edge of shame. At the quiet intercession of his mother, Jesus turns six stone jars of water into the finest wine — his first sign, and the first unveiling of his glory to the men who would become his apostles.
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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 29, mid Galilean ministry
The Feeding of the Five Thousand
On a hillside above the Sea of Galilee, a crowd of thousands who followed Jesus into the wilderness finds itself hungry and far from any town. From five loaves and two small fish, blessed and broken in Jesus's hands, all are fed with baskets to spare — the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels.
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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 29, mid Galilean ministry
Walking on the Water
After feeding the multitude, Jesus sends his disciples ahead by boat and comes to them in the fourth watch of the night, walking on the storm-tossed sea. Peter, invited to come to him, walks a few steps on the waves before fear overtakes him and he begins to sink.
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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 30, shortly before the final Passover
The Healing of Blind Bartimaeus
Outside Jericho, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus cries out to Jesus as the Son of David despite the crowd's rebukes. Called forward, he throws off his cloak, asks to see, and receives his sight — then follows Jesus on the road, the last healing before the entry into Jerusalem.
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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 30, shortly before the final Passover
The Raising of Lazarus
In Bethany, Jesus arrives four days after the death of his friend Lazarus, weeps at his tomb, and calls him back to life with a loud voice. The greatest of his signs, it hastens the plot against him and stands at the threshold of his own Passion.
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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 29, mid Galilean ministry
The Gerasene Demoniac
Crossing to the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus meets a man possessed by a legion of unclean spirits, living naked among the tombs. He casts the demons into a herd of swine and restores the man, clothed and in his right mind — the pattern every exorcism since has followed.
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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 28–30, early Galilean ministry
Healing of the Paralytic
In a crowded house at Capernaum, four men lower their paralyzed friend through a broken roof to reach Jesus, who first forgives his sins and then commands him to rise. The healing exposes the scribes' unbelief and reveals that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.
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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 29, shortly before the journey to Jerusalem
The Transfiguration
On a high mountain, Jesus is transfigured before Peter, James, and John, His face shining like the sun and His garments becoming white as light, as Moses and Elijah appear beside Him and the Father's voice proclaims Him the beloved Son. The event confirms Christ's divine glory before His Passion and prefigures the resurrection.
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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 30-33, the third day after the Crucifixion, with appearances over forty days
The Resurrection
On the third day, the crucified Jesus rises bodily from the dead, the tomb found empty and His risen presence confirmed by numerous witnesses over forty days. As the central miracle of the Christian faith, the Resurrection is the Father's vindication of the Son and the pledge of the resurrection of all believers.
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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 28-29, Galilean ministry
The Widow of Nain
As Jesus approaches the town of Nain, He meets a funeral procession carrying the only son of a widow, and moved with compassion He touches the bier and commands the young man to rise. The miracle, witnessed by a great crowd, reveals Christ's power over death and His tender mercy toward the grieving.
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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 28, Galilean ministry
Healing of the Centurion's Servant
A Roman officer in Capernaum, a man of command who understands authority in his bones, sends word that he is not worthy to have Jesus enter his house. "Only say the word." It is the purest confession of faith Jesus has yet heard — and I am the one who placed it in a pagan's mouth.
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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 28, early Galilean ministry
The Cleansing of the Leper
A man ravaged by disease, forbidden by law to come near any living soul, kneels in the open road and dares to say "if you will." Jesus reaches out his hand and touches him — the first touch the leper has felt in years — and says the four words that undo a sentence of living death: "I will; be clean."
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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 29, Galilean ministry
The Woman with the Hemorrhage
Twelve years of bleeding, twelve years of ruin at the hands of physicians, twelve years of being unclean to every hand that might have helped her. In a pressing crowd she reaches for the hem of his garment, certain that a touch alone will be enough — and I am the certainty in her fingers.
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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 29, Galilean ministry
The Raising of Jairus's Daughter
A synagogue ruler falls at Jesus's feet begging for his dying daughter, and the crowd's slow crush delays them until word comes that she has died. "Do not fear, only believe." Jesus takes her cold hand and speaks two Aramaic words no one present would ever forget: "Talitha koum."
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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 28 (first catch); c. AD 30, after the Resurrection (second catch)
The Miraculous Catch of Fish
Twice the nets come up empty after a night of honest labor, and twice Jesus speaks a single word that fills them past breaking. The first catch calls fishermen away from their boats to follow him; the risen Lord's second catch, on a gray morning after the world seemed to have ended, calls Peter back.
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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 29-30, Feast of Tabernacles, Jerusalem ministry
The Man Born Blind
A beggar blind since birth is anointed with clay made of dust and spittle and sent to wash in the Pool of Siloam. He returns seeing — and spends the rest of the day being interrogated, disbelieved, and expelled by men who cannot bear a miracle that indicts their blindness instead of his.
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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 28-30, during a feast in Jerusalem
The Healing at the Pool of Bethesda
By the five porches of Bethesda in Jerusalem, a man who has waited thirty-eight years for healing meets the one who does not wait for the water to stir. Jesus asks a piercing question — do you want to be healed? — and with a single word restores what decades of near-misses never could, igniting the first open conflict over his identity as Son of God.
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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 29, Galilean ministry, a withdrawal into Gentile territory
The Syrophoenician Woman's Daughter
In pagan Tyre and Sidon, a Gentile mother pleads for her daughter, tormented by an unclean spirit, and will not be turned away by a hard saying about children's bread. Her wit and humility move Jesus to grant a healing at a distance — no touch, no word spoken over the child — commending a faith he found nowhere greater in Israel.
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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 29, shortly after the Transfiguration
The Boy with a Mute Spirit
At the foot of the mountain where Christ's glory had just been unveiled, his disciples fail to free a boy tormented since childhood by a mute, convulsing spirit. A desperate father's cry — 'I believe; help my unbelief' — becomes one of the truest prayers in the Gospels, and Jesus casts out what nine men could not, teaching that this kind comes out only by prayer.
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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 29-30, on the journey toward Jerusalem
The Healing of the Ten Lepers
Ten lepers cry out from the edge of a village between Samaria and Galilee, and Jesus sends them, still unhealed, toward the priests who will certify a cleansing that has not yet happened. All ten are healed on the way; only one, a despised Samaritan, turns back to give thanks — and receives more than the other nine.
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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 30, Holy Week, the Monday before Passover
The Withered Fig Tree
Hungry on the road from Bethany, Jesus curses a fig tree heavy with leaves and empty of fruit — a living parable he pairs, that same day, with the cleansing of the Temple. By morning the tree is withered to its roots, and Jesus turns the sign of judgment into a teaching on the mountain-moving power of faith joined to a forgiving heart.
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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 29, Galilean ministry, shortly after the Transfiguration
The Coin in the Fish's Mouth
When Capernaum's tax collectors ask whether Jesus pays the Temple tax, he reveals to Peter that as the Son, he owes nothing to his Father's house — and then, so as not to give offense, sends Peter to draw from the sea the one fish that has been carrying, in its mouth, the exact coin the moment requires.
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Old Testament · Before time; the first day of creation
The Spirit Over the Waters
In the opening verses of Genesis, the Spirit of God hovers over the formless deep before the first word of creation is spoken. Catholic tradition reads this hovering as the Spirit's proper role in the Trinity's single creative act, later echoed at Christ's baptism in the Jordan.
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Old Testament · The Exodus, traditionally c. 13th century BC
The Crossing of the Red Sea
As Pharaoh's army closes in on the fleeing Israelites, the pillar of cloud and fire shields the camp while a mighty east wind divides the sea, opening dry ground for Israel's escape. The Church has long read the crossing as a type of Christian baptism and of deliverance through the Paschal Mystery.
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Old Testament · Reign of King Ahab, traditionally 9th century BC
Elijah and the Fire on Carmel
After the prophets of Baal fail for hours to summon their god, Elijah rebuilds the altar of the Lord, drenches it in water, and prays a single brief petition; fire falls from heaven and consumes the offering entirely. Israel's confession that follows, "the Lord, he is God," ends the drought and vindicates the covenant against pagan worship.
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Old Testament · Ministry of Elisha, traditionally 9th century BC
Elisha and the Shunammite's Son
A childless woman's hospitality toward the prophet Elisha is rewarded with a promised son, who later dies suddenly in the fields. Elisha shuts himself alone with the child's body, prays, and stretches himself over him, and the boy is restored to life.
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Old Testament · Reign of Nebuchadnezzar II, traditionally 6th century BC
The Fiery Furnace
Three Jewish exiles refuse to worship King Nebuchadnezzar's golden image and are cast into a furnace heated seven times over. A fourth figure, "like the Son of God," walks with them in the flames, and they emerge without a hair singed, prompting the pagan king to bless the God of Israel.
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Old Testament · Reign of King Darius the Mede, traditionally 6th century BC
Daniel in the Lions' Den
Jealous officials trick King Darius into a decree that costs Daniel his life for continuing his lifelong practice of prayer. Cast into a den of lions, Daniel is preserved unharmed through the night by an angel who shuts the lions' mouths, and is drawn out at dawn without a mark upon him.
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Old Testament · Traditionally 8th century BC, reign of Jeroboam II
Jonah and the Great Fish
Fleeing his commission to preach to Nineveh, Jonah is cast into the sea and swallowed by a great fish, spending three days and nights in its belly before being delivered to dry land. Jesus Himself cites Jonah's three days in the fish as a sign of His own coming death and Resurrection.
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Saints & Wonder-workers · September 14, 1224 (vision); died October 3, 1226
Francis of Assisi and the Wounds of La Verna
In September 1224, on Mount La Verna in the Tuscan Apennines, St. Francis of Assisi received the stigmata — the wounds of Christ's Passion imprinted on his own flesh — during a forty-day fast, the first documented case of stigmata in the history of the Church. He died two years later and was canonized within two years of his death, one of the fastest canonizations on record.
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Saints & Wonder-workers · 1195–1231
Anthony of Padua, Hammer of Heretics
St. Anthony of Padua (1195–1231), the Portuguese-born Franciscan whose preaching against the Cathar heresy earned him the title 'Hammer of Heretics,' was canonized less than a year after his death — one of the fastest canonizations in Church history — and later declared a Doctor of the Church.
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Saints & Wonder-workers · 1603–1663
Joseph of Cupertino, the Flying Friar
St. Joseph of Cupertino (1603–1663), a Franciscan friar considered too slow-witted for ordination, became the subject of over thirty years of publicly witnessed levitations during Mass and prayer, investigated repeatedly by the Roman Inquisition and witnessed by Pope Urban VIII himself. He was canonized in 1767 and is patron saint of aviators and students.
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Saints & Wonder-workers · c. 1854–1888
John Bosco and the Grey Guardian
For more than thirty years in 19th-century Turin, St. John Bosco documented repeated appearances of an unexplained grey dog he called Grigio, which materialized at moments of danger to protect him and then vanished, witnessed independently by his mother and by boys at his oratory. Bosco founded the Salesian order and was canonized in 1934.
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Saints & Wonder-workers · 1887–1968
Padre Pio and the Fifty-Year Wounds
St. Pio of Pietrelcina received visible stigmata on September 20, 1918, and bore the wounds for fifty years under repeated medical and ecclesiastical examination until his death in 1968. He founded the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza hospital and was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2002.
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Saints & Wonder-workers · 1828–1898
Charbel Makhlouf and the Incorrupt Hermit of Annaya
St. Charbel Makhlouf (1828–1898), a Lebanese Maronite hermit, was found incorrupt after his death, exuding a blood-like fluid documented by his monastic community for decades, and became associated with thousands of reported healings at his tomb in Annaya. He was canonized in 1977 by Pope Paul VI.
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Saints & Wonder-workers · 1991–2006; canonized September 7, 2025
Carlo Acutis, the Cyber-Apostle of the Eucharist
Carlo Acutis (1991–2006), an Italian teenager who died of leukemia at fifteen, built an online exhibition cataloguing Eucharistic miracles worldwide and was canonized on September 7, 2025 by Pope Leo XIV, becoming the Catholic Church's first millennial saint. This Encyclopaedia continues the mission he began.
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Saints & Wonder-workers · c. 213–270
Gregory the Wonderworker and the Mountain That Moved
St. Gregory of Neocaesarea (c. 213–270), student of Origen, became bishop of a city with only seventeen Christians and reportedly left it with only seventeen pagans. Tradition credits him with moving a mountain and drying a flooding marsh, earning him the title Thaumaturgus, the Wonderworker.
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Saints & Wonder-workers · 316–397
Martin of Tours and the Half of a Soldier's Cloak
St. Martin of Tours (316–397), a Roman soldier who became a monk and bishop, is remembered chiefly for one winter night at Amiens when he cut his military cloak in half for a freezing beggar and saw Christ in a dream wearing it. He founded some of Gaul's first monasteries and evangelized the rural countryside.
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Saints & Wonder-workers · c. 480–547
Benedict of Nursia and the Cup That Would Not Hold Its Poison
St. Benedict of Nursia (c. 480–547) fled Rome for a cave at Subiaco, survived an attempted poisoning by monks who resented his discipline, raised a young monk crushed by a collapsing wall, and wrote the Rule that shaped Western monasticism. Pope Paul VI declared him patron of Europe in 1964.
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Saints & Wonder-workers · 1170–1221
Dominic, the Rosary, and the Book the Fire Would Not Burn
St. Dominic de Guzmán (1170–1221) founded the Order of Preachers to combat the Albigensian heresy through learning and prayer. Tradition holds that Our Lady gave him the Rosary at Prouille, and that at Fanjeaux his writings survived three castings into flames that consumed the heretical texts beside them.
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Saints & Wonder-workers · 1347–1380
Catherine of Siena and the Wounds She Asked Me to Hide
St. Catherine of Siena (1347–1380), a Dominican tertiary and mystic, is remembered for a mystical espousal to Christ, for stigmata she asked to remain invisible during her lifetime, and for persuading Pope Gregory XI to return the papacy to Rome from Avignon. She was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1970.
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Saints & Wonder-workers · 1350–1419
Vincent Ferrer, the Angel of the Apocalypse
St. Vincent Ferrer (1350–1419), a Valencian Dominican, preached across Spain, France, Italy, and Switzerland during the Western Schism, calling himself and being called by crowds the Angel of the Apocalypse for his warnings of judgment. His canonization process documented hundreds of reported healings during his missions.
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Saints & Wonder-workers · c. 270–343
St. Nicholas and the Gold Thrown in the Dark
St. Nicholas of Myra (c. 270–343), bishop of Myra in Lycia, became the wonderworker of the early Church through secret gifts to the poor, a calmed sea storm remembered by sailors for centuries, and relics that have exuded a clear liquid at Bari since 1087. He was never formally canonized — the ancient Church recognized his sanctity by acclamation.
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Saints & Wonder-workers · 1515–1595
Philip Neri and the Fire That Broke His Ribs
St. Philip Neri (1515–1595), the joyful Apostle of Rome, received a mystical fire in his chest on the vigil of Pentecost 1544 that physically enlarged his heart — a swelling confirmed at his autopsy, when doctors found two ribs broken outward to make room for it. He founded the Congregation of the Oratory and was canonized in 1622.
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Saints & Wonder-workers · 1786–1859
The Curé of Ars and the Thing in the Rectory
St. John Vianney (1786–1859), parish priest of Ars, France, spent up to sixteen hours a day in the confessional reading souls with an accuracy penitents found unnerving, while enduring years of documented nighttime disturbances he attributed to a demon he called "le grappin." Canonized in 1925, his body remains incorrupt beneath the Basilica of Ars.
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Saints & Wonder-workers · 1905–1938
Faustina and the Two Rays
St. Faustina Kowalska (1905–1938), a Polish religious sister, recorded visions of Jesus as Divine Mercy in a diary written under obedience, giving the Church the image and the message that Pope John Paul II placed at the center of the universal calendar when he canonized her in 2000 and established Divine Mercy Sunday.
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Saints & Wonder-workers · 1579–1639
Martin de Porres, Seen in Two Places at Once
St. Martin de Porres (1579–1639), a mixed-race Dominican lay brother in Lima, Peru, was reported by contemporaries to appear in distant lands while remaining in his convent, healed the sick without regard to race or status, and was canonized in 1962 as one of the first saints of the Americas of African descent.
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Saints & Wonder-workers · 1845–1937
The Doorkeeper Who Built a Mountain
St. André Bessette (1845–1937), a frail, largely illiterate lay brother who spent decades answering the door of a Montreal college, attributed thousands of healings to the intercession of St. Joseph and, starting from a small wooden chapel, built what became St. Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal, now the largest shrine to St. Joseph in the world. He was canonized in 2010.
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