Erding
About 20 miles northeast of Munich lies the town of Erding, Germany. On Holy Thursday, 1417, a poor peasant went into the local church and stole a consecrated Host.
He thought he could use it to make his life prosperous economically. He had a neighbor who seemed to work the same amount but was always more successful. When he inquired as to how he did it, the neighbor simply replied that he kept the Blessed Sacrament in his house, meaning that he kept Jesus, the Real Presence of the Eucharist, in his heart. The peasant, however, not at all versed in the doctrines of the Church, came away from his neighbor’s reply with the idea that the Host must be some sort of amulet or lucky charm. This was the backdrop to his decision to steal a Host.
So, he went to Mass on Holy Thursday and received Communion, but instead of consuming the Host, secreted it in a linen cloth. Feeling some pangs of conscience on what he knew was an act of deception, he decided to return the Host back to the church. As he was walking back, the Host flew out of the cloth and up into the air. Then it fell to the ground and disappeared.
Already feeling remorse, and now panic, he immediately ran and confessed to the pastor what had taken place. As soon as he got to the spot where the peasant had lost the Host, the priest caught sight of the Sacred Particle resting on a clump of dirt and gleaming a bright white. The priest reached down to grasp It, but It again flew up into the air, fell to the ground and disappeared.
The priest then informed the Bishop of these events. He also wanted to go to the site where these things had happened. Again, the Host flew up into the air, for a longer period than the previous two times and then fell to the ground and, once again, disappeared. It was never seen again.
The people in the area then decided to build a chapel in honor of the miraculous occurrence. So many pilgrims came to the site that, in 1675, a new and bigger sanctuary was built, which can be visited to this day (although, at present, it may still be closed for some structural repairs).
Source: “The Eucharistic Miracles of the World,” a Vatican international exhibition, as reported by The Real Presence Eucharistic Education and Adoration Associationhttp://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/mir/english_pdf/Erding.pdf, and
The Catholic Travel Guide: https://thecatholictravelguide.com/destinations/germany/erding-germany-eucharistic-miracle/.
Blanot
On Easter Sunday, March 31, 1331, the first Mass of the day was being said in Blanot, a village in the center of France. The Mass was being said by the vicar, Hugues de la Baume. One of the last people to receive Communion was a woman named Jacquette, the widow of Regnaut d’Effour. The priest placed the Host on her tongue, turned, and started walking toward the altar. He did not notice that a Particle from the Host fell and landed upon a cloth that covered the woman’s hands. Thomas Caillot who was assisting at the Mass went to the altar and said: “Father, you must return to the rail because the Body of Our Lord fell from the mouth of this lady onto the cloth.”
The priest immediately went to the woman, still kneeling at the railing, but instead of finding the Host on the cloth, he saw a small spot of Blood. When Mass was over, the priest took the cloth into the sacristy and placed the stained area in a basin filled with clear water. After washing the spot and scrubbing it numerous times, he found that it had become darker and larger (reaching about the size and shape of a Host). Moreover, the water in the basin turned Bloody. The priest took a knife and, after washing the cloth, cut from it the piece bearing the Bloody imprint of the Host. He held up the Sacred Host and said: “Good people: here is the Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. I sought in every way to wash and to wring the stain from the cloth, and in no way was I able to do so.” This square of cloth was reverently placed in the tabernacle. Every year, on the feast of Corpus Christi, the relic is solemnly exposed in the church of Blanot.
An additional note: The Hosts that remained in the ciborium after the distribution of Holy Communion on that Easter Sunday were also returned to the tabernacle, never to be distributed. Hundreds of years later they were found to have been perfectly preserved.
Source: “The Eucharistic Miracles of the World,” a Vatican international exhibition, as reported by The Real Presence Eucharistic Education and Adoration Association http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/mir/english_pdf/Blanot.pdf
Weiten
In 1411, a thief broke into a parish church in the village of Weiten and stole a consecrated Host. There had been thefts of Hosts around that time and authorities began to keep them in the sacristy. This was not enough to stop this theft.
The thief in this case got on his horse and headed for the village of Spitz nearby. He took a side road that went through the valley of Mühldorf. At a certain spot, his horse stopped and would move no further. The man beat him, but the horse would not yield. Some workers in a nearby field came to help, but none of them could get the horse to budge.
Then all at once, the horse bolted and the Host fell to the ground. No one noticed.
A few days later, a woman named Mrs. Scheck, from Mannersdorf, came by and noticed the Host encircled in a strong light. In great wonder, she picked up the Holy Eucharist and noticed that the consecrated Host was broken in two Parts but remained joined together by threads of Bleeding Flesh. Greatly moved and at her own expense, she built a small chapel on the spot.
Great crowds came every year and it became necessary to build a larger church.
Source: “The Eucharistic Miracles of the World,” a Vatican international exhibition, as reported by The Real Presence Eucharistic Education and Adoration and http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/mir/english_pdf/Weiten.pdf.
St. Catherine of Siena at Mass
“… while he was saying the words of consecration, and I manifested Myself to you, and you saw issue from My breast a light, like a ray from the sun, which proceeds from the circle of the sun without being separated from it, out of the midst of which light came a dove and hovered over the host, in virtue of the words which the minister was saying. But sight remained alone in the eye of your intellect, because your bodily sight was not strong enough to stand the light, and in that place you saw and tasted the Abyss of the Trinity, whole God and whole man concealed and veiled in that whiteness that you saw in the bread; and you perceived that the seeing of the Light and the presence of the Word, which you saw intellectually in the whiteness of the bread, did not prevent you seeing at the same time the actual whiteness of the bread, the one vision did not prevent the other vision, that is to say, the sight of the God- Man revealed in the bread did not prevent the sight of the bread, for neither its whiteness, nor its touch, nor its savor were taken away.”
St. Catherine of Sienna, Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena (Charlotte, N.C., Tan Books 2010) p. 143.
St. Joseph Benedict LaBre
St. Joseph Benedict LaBre often slept at night in the Coliseum, under its open-air arches. He spent his days praying in the churches around Rome. He liked especially to churches where the Forty Hours devotion was practiced, in which the Sacred Host was adored. It was typical for him to spend five to six hours in such adoration.
He was known, for such extended periods of time, for having a glow about his face, a luminous spectacle, there in the presence of His Lord.
He died young, at age 35. His concern for others did not end then. Within but a few months of his death, more than 130 miracles were recorded that were ascribed to his intercession.
Source: “Guardians of the Eucharist,” The Spirit of Adoration, ed. June Klins, Issue No.1, Erie, PA, p.2, http://www.spiritofmedjugorje.org/files/AdorationIssue1.pdf.
His First Mass
St. Thomas of Aquinas was ordained a priest at the age of twenty-five. In anticipation of this singular event, he spent night after night before the tabernacle. It was hardly something new to him. He had engaged in this practice of prayer before the Holy Presence since his childhood.
Now, however the day arrived, as well as the day he himself celebrated Mass for the first time. At that Mass, an extraordinary illumination was seen in front of his forehead.
Shapcote, Emily Mary, Legends of the Blessed Sacrament (London, Burns & Oates) p. 41.
St. John of the Cross in the Chapel
When a monastery was being built, St. John of the Cross regularly helped to carry bricks, mortar and timber to the workmen. One day he was absent and the workmen went to look for him. They found him in the chapel before the tabernacle. He was in deep prayer. He was also suspended in the air, to the point where his head was touching the ceiling.
Source: Cruz, Caroll, Eucharistic Miracles (Charlotte, North Carolina, Tan Books, 2010) p. 291.
Marseilles
More than 60 people gave witness, under oath, to the following story.
It seems that, in 1718, the Forty Hours Devotion was being celebrated in the convent church of the Cordeliers, in Marseilles, France. At one point during the event, the Blessed Sacrament in the monstrance disappeared and, in Its place, the people saw the countenance of the Lord Himself. The figure emanated such brightness, and the simultaneous emotions of mildness and severity so intense, that people could not bear to meet His gaze.
Source: Etlin, Rev. Lukas, O.S.B., Eucharistic Miracles (Clyde, Missouri, Benedictine Convent of Perpetual Adoration 1947), p. 19-20.
Saint Lucia Filippini
Saint Lucia Filippini was on her way to Pitigliano, about 100 miles north of Rome, to supervise a school for craftsmen which she had founded. First, however, she stopped at the church of the Franciscan Fathers to attend Holy Mass. When the priest was breaking the large Host in half to place a small Fragment in the chalice, this very Part escaped his hand and flew into the air, radiating light, and came to rest on the tongue of the future saint. Today, the shrine where the miracle took place is under the care of the devout Filipini Sisters.
Source: “The Eucharistic Miracles of the World,” a Vatican international exhibition, as reported by The Real Presence Eucharistic Education and Adoration and Association,http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/mir/english_pdf/communions1.pdf
St. Francis of Posadas
One day, St. Francis of Posadas was saying Mass. As he was pronouncing the words of consecration, the moment when the bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood, he was raised off the ground. He remained suspended in the air until the conclusion of the Mass. After that, the congregation also saw that he was enveloped in a great light.
Source: Cruz, Caroll, Eucharistic Miracles (Charlotte, North Carolina, Tan Books, 2010) p. 290-91..