Eucharistic Miracles Preserving Consecrated Hosts.
On
June 6, 1453, two scoundrels pillaged the Catholic Church in Exilles, Italy,
where they stole many items of value, including a costly monstrance containing
a consecrated Host which they had stolen from the Tabernacle. They loaded all
the items on their mule and set off for Turin, intending sell them there. As
they approached the gates of the city, the mule stumbled and fell to the
ground, and everything loaded on its back fell off – except for the consecrated
Eucharistic Host.
Then
the Bishop asked for a chalice. He stood up holding the chalice as high as he could,
yet still quite a way below the suspended Eucharist. Gradually on its own, the
Eucharistic Host lowered itself into the chalice, and the Bishop brought it to
a nearby church. A number of contemporaneous documents still preserved to this
day give proof of the miracle.
On
April 16, 1560, in Morrovalle, Italy, at 2:00 AM the Franciscan friars were
awakened to find the Church of St. Francis was on fire. Men tried to put it out
but in vain, and the fire burned seven hours. In assessing the damage later, everything
was found totally destroyed. Everything – except for a consecrated Eucharistic
Host. The Tabernacle where it had been kept was totally consumed by the fire,
and all the vessels in the Tabernacle were also totally destroyed, except for
the top cover of a pyx which had held the Eucharist. Amidst the burned wood and
broken pieces of the marble altar, there was a cavity where the perfectly
preserved Eucharistic Host was found. It lay on a scorched corporal cloth,
which in turn was laying on a badly burned piece of linen.
All
who saw the destruction of the church and everything in it immediately hailed
the preservation of the Host a miracle. Both the local Bishop and Pope Pius IV
ordered rigorous investigations, and five months later a papal bull was issued
declaring the preservation of the Host from the fire as “undoubtedly
miraculous.”
On
January 18, 1772, priests and parishioners of the Church of St. Peter in
Paterno, Italy, learned their Tabernacle had been violated and two containers
of consecrated Hosts were missing. For weeks the people searched everywhere for
both Hosts and culprit, but with no result. Then on an estate outside the city,
lights resembling stars started appearing at night. After repeating for some
nights, people gathered and searched the area looking for the stolen Hosts, but
none were initially found. (Obviously the people needed a little more help
finding them!)
On
February 24, a great flame was seen darting around a heap of straw in the
field. Four men coming there were seized by some irresistible power forcing
them to the ground. Upon standing up, they saw a bright ball of light coming
from the base of a nearby poplar tree. In the center of the light was a
dazzling white dove which rose a few feet above the ground, then descended and
disappeared into the flood of light at the base of the tree. People began to
dig there and found several of the missing Hosts, placing them on clean linen
and returning them to the Tabernacle.
The following night, lights appeared again in the field, but now at a different location. Initially a search found nothing. However, the next night more lights appeared, and one glowing light was seen to rise from the earth and fall into the ground. At that location, the digging found a very large number of the stolen sacred Hosts. These were also returned to the Tabernacle in the church, amidst great rejoicing by the people. Sworn witness statements as to the authenticity of these happenings are preserved in the records of the Archdiocese of Naples.
Dibby Allan Green