Eucharistic Miracles

By Mike Lambrecht

      With First Communion for second graders taking place this Sunday, I thought it might be nice to take a look at some of the Eucharistic miracles that have taken place through the ages.

      In Florence, Italy, in 1230, a priest was cleaning the sacred vessels after Mass. He absentmindedly left some of the consecrated wine in the bottom of the chalice. The next morning, when he returned, he noticed that there was coagulated blood in the bottom of the chalice. After more than 750 years, this blood is still perfectly preserved.

      A second miracle occurred in Florence in the year 1595. When the altar cloth caught fire, a pyx fell and opened on impact with the ground. Those hosts that fell on the carpet before the altar miraculously twisted, curled, and united from the heat of the fire. After over 400 years, this collection of hosts is still perfectly preserved.

      Miracles do not solely occur in Italy. In 1239, in Spain, the Saracen King planned an  attack to retake the city of Daroca. The Catholic King Don Jaime, knowing that he was greatly outnumbered, ordered an outdoor Mass to take place in which his troops could receive the Eucharist. Immediately after the distribution of communion, the attack by the Saracens began. The priest placed the six remaining hosts between two corporals and hid them under a rock for safety. The Catholic troops were victorious. The priest returned to look for the hosts. Once he finally located the corporals, he opened them only to find out that the hosts had disappeared leaving behind six bloodstains in their place. He showed the corporals to the troops to their great amazement. They can still be seen in the city of Daroca to this day.

      In France, in the year 1290, there lived a woman who had nothing of value save for a dress which she pawned in order to get some money for living expenses. With Easter quickly approaching, she yearned to be well dressed for the festival. She returned to the pawnbroker and asked if she could have her dress back for just one day. The pawnbroker, not being Christian, was curious about the host received at Mass. He told the woman that she could have her dress back if she would only bring him one of the consecrated hosts. The woman agreed to his shameful proposal. At Mass, she secretly removed the host from her mouth and brought it to the pawnbroker who placed it on table. In the presence of the woman and his children, the pawnbroker began to stab the host with his pen knife. Great streams of blood gushed from the cuts. The man, wishing to destroy the host at this point, threw it into a fire. The host was unaffected by the flames so he dropped it into a kettle of boiling water. This time, the water turned red and spilled on the floor. As the water ran towards the street, it attracted the attention of some passersby. The woman entered the house and witnessed a vision of Jesus standing before the kettle. She saw the host and placed it in a vase. Then she returned it to the church of St. Jean-en-Greve. The pawnbroker was convicted of sacrilege.

      Miracles not only occurred in the distant past. In 1970, in West Germany, two miracles are recorded to have taken place. While saying Mass, a priest noticed a small reddish spot next to the chalice that grew to about the size of a coin. When the priest raised the chalice, he noticed another red stain where the chalice had been. Thinking that the chalice had a leak, he examined the bottom but found it completely dry. After Mass, the priest locked the cloths in a safe place. On June 11th, the cloths were examined more closely by the pastor and the Swiss priest. They took pictures of the cloths and then sent the cloths to a lab for analysis. The cloths were given to four different individuals to study with no mention of what had taken place. The results of all four concluded that the stains were human blood. Furthermore, it was the blood of a man in agony.

*These miraculous accounts are taken from the book Eucharistic Miracles by Joan Carroll Cruz.