Eucharistic Miracle: Lanciano

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Lanciano, in what is now Italy, is the home of one of the best-known Eucharistic miracles. Eucharistic miracles are miracles which specifically involve the bread and wine which the Catholic Church teaches become the literal body and blood of Jesus while still retaining the appearance of bread and wine. This takes place during the Mass. In the eighth century a monk in Lanciano (then known as Anxanum in what is now known as Italy) was having doubts about the Eucharist. Was it truly the actual body and blood of Jesus. At Mass one morning, as he pronounced the words of consecration ("This is my body. This is my blood"), he saw the bread and wine transform physically into flesh and blood. The blood coagulated into five globules which may represent the five wounds of Christ. News spread quickly and the bishop launched an investigation. The miracle was found to be genuine. The flesh and the blood are still on display at the Church of San Francesco in Lanciano. They have not deteriorated over time. We can question an 8th century investigation. They obviously did not have the knowledge or the techniques that we have today. Also, the documents from the original investigation are missing. However, that was not the only investigation. In 1971 an anatomy professor by the name of Odoardo Linoli was given permission to study the flesh and blood. Linoli was a professor in anatomy and pathological histology as well as chemistry and clinical microscopy, and former head of the Laboratory of Pathological Anatomy at the Hospital of Arezzo. He published his results in Quaderni Sclavo di Diagnostica Clinica e di Laboratori. Linoli concluded that the flesh was cardiac tissue and the blood appeared to be fresh even though it was some 1,200 years old. He found no trace of any preservatives. In 1981 Linoli's results were confirmed by Ruggero Bertelli, a retired professor of human anatomy at the University of Siena. The blood and the tissue, although many centuries old, can be seen at the Church of San Francesco in Lanciano. They are kept in a reliquary which was made in Naples in 1713. The relics were visited by Pope Saint John Paul II in 2004.