Mother of the True Flesh and the True Blood, Pray for Us!: Wednesday, July 8, 2020

J.M.J.

From "The True Presence: Eucharistic Miracles Over the Centuries for Corpus Christi" by Joseph Pronechen (National Catholic Register, June 20, 2019)

     During the middle of the eighth century, a Basilian monk who was more oriented toward science than faith had persistent doubts about the reality of the bread and wine becoming Christ’s true Body and true Blood at the Consecration — until one particular Mass. As he pronounced the words of Consecration, “suddenly the monk saw the Bread visibly turn into Flesh and the Wine into Blood,” according to documents at the Sanctuary of the Eucharistic Miracle in Lanciano, Italy.

     This was heaven’s direct answer to the monk — belief quickly replaced his doubts as he invited those at Mass to come and contemplate the living God before their eyes. The faithful can still do so in the Church of San Francesco in Lanciano over a dozen centuries later, as the preserved Flesh and coagulated Blood remain on display. TheRealPresence.org reports that tests found the Flesh is indeed real human flesh. The Blood is human blood, too, type AB, the same blood type found on the Shroud of Turin.

     Furthermore, in 1973, the World Health Organization’s board of governors chose a scientific commission to check the initial findings. After 500 examinations, they verified the 1971 findings, and “declared without doubt that it is a living Tissue,” reports the Lanciano shrine — and scientifically unexplainable.