THE MIRACLE OF THE EUCHARIST AT
During the 2,000 years since Christ founded the Church, there have taken place a number of miracles involving the Holy Eucharist. While we have shreds of evidence (some concrete, some questionable) for several of these signs, none appear to measure up to the awesome proof left behind by the Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano. Catholics have traditionally put their faith in Our Lord’s “Real Presence” in the Blessed Sacrament based on His words from the 6th chapter of John’s Gospel, but here we have a case in which He graced the Church with a beautiful phenomenon on par with the marvels He worked during His three years of public ministry.
The origin of the Miracle dates back to the 8th century A.D. in the town of Lanciano, which is located about halfway up the boot on the east coast of Italy in the Abruzzo region. A monk who had been plagued by doubts as to whether Christ was truly present in the Eucharist was saying Mass in the church of St. Legontian. During the Consecration, the part of the Mass during which the bread and wine become the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, the monk was taken aback when the host changed into a piece of flesh and the wine transformed into actual blood (which subsequently broke into five tiny clots of differing shapes). Although Catholics believe that Jesus is truly present at every Mass, the features of bread and wine (referred to as “accidents”) normally remain with the objects upon the altar, the substance of which has been “transubstantiated” into the Flesh and Blood of Our Lord. This occurrence in Lanciano was immediately interpreted as a sign from Heaven to the unbelieving monk, and the contents of the Miracle were kept in the church to be worshipped by the faithful.
For centuries, devout pilgrims made long trips to Lanciano to witness the Miracle, which was denounced by skeptics as nonsense. According to a website promoting life in the Abruzzo region of Italy, at http://www.negrisud.it/en/abruzzo/miracolo_eucaristico/, the “Host-Flesh, as can be very distinctly observed today, has the same dimensions as the large host used today…it is light brown and appears rose-colored when lighted from the back. The Blood is coagulated and has an earthy color resembling the yellow of ochre”.
Taken for granted as a sign from God by many within the Church for over a millennium, the Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano was examined by science during the latter half of the 20th century. With permission from Rome, Archbishop Pacifico Perantoni directed Dr. Edoardo Linoli [1] to extract samples from the miraculous Flesh and Blood to be tested in a lab between the months of November 1970 and March 1971. Dr. Linoli, who was supposedly a cynic in regards to the Miracle, sent a telegram to the Franciscan Friars who tended the church in which the Miracle was kept on December 11, 1970, reiterating the words of St. John from the first chapter of his Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was made Flesh.” Shortly after beginning his research on the Flesh and Blood, Dr. Linoli was convinced that the mystery before him was of a miraculous nature. Along with his assistant, Dr. Ruggero Bertelli [2], he extracted and inspected parts of the relics and came to the following conclusions [3]:
- The Flesh is real flesh and the Blood is real blood.
- Both the Flesh and the Blood belong to the human species.
- The Flesh and the Blood have the same blood type, AB, which matches the blood that was identified on the Shroud of Turin. This type of blood is found in roughly 3% of human beings, but in 14-15% of those living in certain parts of Palestine and the Middle East. [4]
- The Flesh consists of the muscular tissue of the heart.
- In the Flesh, the following body parts are present: the myocardium; the endocardium; the vagus nerve; and the left ventricle.
- In the Blood there were found proteins in the same normal proportions as are found in the fresh blood of a living person. (Catholics believe that the Eucharist is Jesus Christ, the risen Lord, Who is alive.)
- In the Blood there were found the following minerals: chlorides, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, sodium and calcium.
- The five clots of Blood, though different in shape and size, are equal in weight. Also, one of the clots weighs as much as two, and two as much as three. Whether one clot, two clots or five clots are weighed, they always amount to 15.85 grams.
- The preservation of the Flesh and the Blood, which were left in their natural state for twelve centuries and exposed to the action of atmospheric and biological agents, remains an extraordinary phenomenon.
In 1973, the World Health Organization (WHO) appointed a scientific commission to scrutinize Dr. Linoli’s findings. During a 15-month period, over 500 tests were conducted, all of which supported the conclusions listed above. WHO’s scientific research was published in New York and Geneva in 1976, confirming science’s failure to explain the Miracle.
During the spring of 2005, at a congress on Eucharistic miracles held at the Vatican, Dr. Edoardo Linoli spoke fondly of his wondrous experience by stating that he held “real cardiac tissue” in his hands when he handled the samples taken from the shrine at Lanciano.
Although nobody’s faith in Our Lord should hinge on the validity of the Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano, it serves as an awesome reminder that Christ is truly present in the Blessed Sacrament. While it would be spiritually enriching to visit the church in Italy to see the Miracle with your own eyes, you need not cross the Atlantic to adore Jesus. He waits for you in every tabernacle, upon the altar at every Mass, and in chapels of adoration. When will you pay Him a visit and thank Him for having humbled Himself to give His life as a ransom for your sins? When will you approach Him in the Blessed Sacrament to pour out your heart, tell Him all of your problems and make your petitions heard? His physical presence in Lanciano confirms that He truly offers Himself to us in Holy Communion.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Dr. Linoli was a professor of anatomy, pathological histology, chemistry and clinical microscopy, and the former head of the Laboratory of Pathological Anatomy at the Hospital of Arezzo.
[2] At the time of the examination of the Miracle, Dr. Bertelli was a professor of human anatomy at the University of Siena.
[3] You can find extensive information, pictures and graphs from the 1970-71 tests on the Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano at http://www.negrisud.it/en/abruzzo/miracolo_eucaristico/tableofcontents.html.
[4] The Shroud of Turin is considered by some to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ. Although radiocarbon testing performed in 1988 dated the Shroud’s origins to the 13th or 14th century, there are many features on the cloth that are not yet explainable, including human blood. In the January 2005 issue of Thermochimica Acta, a peer-reviewed scientific journal, the late chemist Raymond Rogers of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico dismissed the results of the radiocarbon testing on the basis that the sample taken from the Shroud was from a section that had been repaired due to water damage sustained when a fire in the chapel in which it was kept was extinguished in 1532. If Raymond Rogers’ argument is true, which it likely is, the date range of the origin of the Shroud yielded by the testing would be rendered worthless.
REFERENCES:
- “Physician Tells of Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano”, Zenit Daily Dispatch,
- “The Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano” as found at http://www.negrisud.it./en/abruzzo/miracolo_eucaristico/shortdesc.html
- “Host Turns to Human Flesh in the Eucharistic Miracle at
- “The Temporal Power of the Popes: Church and State in the Middle Age” from chapter 8 in “A Catechism of Church History” by Father Robert J. Fox as found on the website of The Catholic Educator’s Research Center at http://catholiceducation.org/articles/history/world/wh0061.html
