Eucharistic Miracles
5 documented wonders in the chamber of Eucharistic Miracles — each with its place, its period and the sources behind it.
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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Eucharistic Miracles · 1263 (bull issued 1264)
The Eucharistic Miracle of Bolsena-Orvieto
In 1263, a Bohemian priest troubled by doubt over the Real Presence reportedly saw the host bleed onto the altar linen while celebrating Mass in Bolsena, Italy; the blood-stained corporal was carried to Pope Urban IV in nearby Orvieto, and the following year his bull Transiturus de hoc mundo established the feast of Corpus Christi for the universal Church, with Orvieto Cathedral later built to enshrine the relic.
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Eucharistic Miracles · early 13th century
The Eucharistic Miracle of Santarém
In the early thirteenth century, a married woman of Santarém, Portugal, seeking a spell to reclaim her husband's affection, reportedly removed a consecrated host from Mass at the request of a sorceress; the host began to bleed in the cloth in which she hid it, and the prodigy, discovered that night by a light shining from the chest where she concealed it, gave rise to the shrine now known as the Church of the Holy Miracle.
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