Christ Spans the Centuries in Eucharistic Miracles: Buenos Aires & Lanciano
by Michael Ruszala
In the Gospels, Jesus
typically requires an act of faith – something difficult—from anyone
asking for healing. In the age of the Church, Jesus likewise asks of
everyone a difficult act of faith—belief that at the command of the
priest, bread and wine changes substance into the Body, Blood, Soul, and
Divinity of Christ. It is as much a stumbling block today as it was for
the crowds to whom Jesus proclaimed, “
the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
(John 6:51). But the faith Jesus demanded of them was not unreasonable.
He provided the crowds with a miracle—the multiplication of the loaves
and fish—and many others as well throughout his ministry. Likewise,
Jesus has continued to provide miracles now and then to show that faith
in the Eucharist is defendable.
Every Eucharist can be said to be miraculous in that it brings God’s
power above nature. But not every Eucharist is miraculous in the full
meaning of the term—namely power above nature that is clearly open to
our five senses as such. Typically, God’s power is behind the veil. The
bread and wine that has become the Body and Blood of Jesus still taste,
smell, and feel like bread and wine.
However, there have been times when the Eucharist has been miraculous in the full meaning of the term.
The Miracle in Lanciano, Italy
In the eighth century in the Italian town of Lanciano on the Adriatic
coast, a Basilian monk-priest was celebrating Mass at the monastery
church of St. Lengonius. This priest, however, was having doubts about
Christ’s Real Presence in the Eucharist. At the words of Consecration,
the Host in his hands turned visibly into flesh and the consecrated wine
turned visibly into blood. The faithful present were overcome with
wonder and awe and spread the news of the miracle far and wide. The
relics of the miracle were preserved by the Basilian fathers and then
the Benedictines, and they are still on display at the Church of St.
Francis in Lanciano. Over 1,200 years later, the flesh, in the shape of a
Communion Host, and coagulated droplets of blood from the Chalice are
still in tact. Typically, flesh and blood or bread and wine disintegrate
rather quickly.
Scientific examination of the relics in 1971
yielded even more insight into the miracle, in addition to showing it
to be beyond natural explanation. Dr. Odoardo Linoli, a professor having
specializations in anatomy, pathological histology, chemistry, and
clinical microscopy, examined the relics that year with the assistance
of Dr. Ruggero Bertelli, an anatomical expert. Dr. Linoli made the
following discoveries: the flesh was real human flesh from the heart—a
cross section including the myocardium, the endocardium, the vagus
nerve, and left ventricle. It contained true human blood, of the AB
variety, which is much more common in the middle east than it is in
Italy—and the same as found on the Shroud of Turin. The chemicals found
in the blood should have very quickly disintegrated, but instead lasted
over 1,200 years. No preservatives were found. Dr. Linoli and Dr.
Bertelli published their findings in an Italian medical journal in 1971.
The spiritual significance of the flesh being heart tissue, with the
anatomical structures as discovered, is that this part of the flesh is
responsible for pumping the lifeblood of the body, much like Christ in
the Eucharist pours his life and grace into the Church and the soul to
bring them to life. We might think of the prayer later revealed by Jesus
to St. Faustina:
O blood and water, which gushed forth from the heart of Jesus as a fount of mercy for us, I trust in you.
It is interesting to note that St. Lengonius, the patron of the
church in which the miracle took place and who is said to have been from
this town, was the Roman centurion traditionally thought to be the
soldier who thrust a lance into Jesus’ side (as in John’s Gospel) but
then testified, in the Synoptic accounts, “Truly this man was the son of
God!” (Mark 15:39). The town Lanciano, meaning ‘lance,’ was later named
after him.
The Miracle in Buenos Aires
While one might think that Eucharistic miracles like this only took
place long ago, this is not the case. While there have, in fact, been
many Eucharistic miracles, one particular
miracle that took place in the city of Buenos Aires,
Argentina, at St. Mary Church in 1996 bears a striking resemblance to
the miracle of Lanciano. A communicant discarded their Consecrated Host
in the back of the church rather than consume it, perhaps because it had
fallen on the ground. One of the faithful found the discarded Host on a
candlestick holder, and reported it to the priest, Fr. Alejandro Pezet,
who took the usual measures to reverently return the Host to nature. He
retrieved the Host, placed it in the Tabernacle submerged in a
container of water so that the Host, which was likely not safe to
consume, would dissolve. So long as the accidents of the Consecrated
bread and wine remain, so does the Real Presence of Christ, but the
Presence is withdrawn when the accidents naturally dissipate.
Fr. Pezet returned after six days to retrieve the water into which
the Host should have dissolved, so that it could be returned to nature.
Instead, what he found was bleeding flesh, which had expanded in size
from that of the Host. He reported the phenomenon to Archbishop Jorge
Bergoglio of Buenos Aires—the future Pope Francis—who advised him to
have professional photos taken and to keep silence on the matter until
further advised. Fr. Pezet did so, but several years later, the flesh
and blood were still in good condition. So in 1999, Archbishop Bergoglio
authorized Dr. Ricardo Castanon to have the flesh and blood analyzed.
Dr. Castanon is a former atheist who converted to Catholicism because of
prior encounters with miraculous phenomena that he was called upon to
analyze.
Dr. Castanon found Dr. Fredereic Zugiba of New York, a highly
respected cardiologist, forensic pathologist, and biochemist known for
his expertise in determining cause of death, and had the sample sent to
him for analysis without telling him where it had come from or what it
was thought to be. Dr. Zugiba examined the sample and concluded that it
was tissue from the human heart (myocardium of the left ventricle) and
that the blood was type AB human blood from the same body. Furthermore,
based on the large presence of many blood cells which cannot typically
survive after death, he concluded that the person from whom the sample
was taken likely suffered traumatic blows to the chest and may even have
been alive when the heart tissue was removed. The cells even appeared
to be pulsing as if in a live person.
Dr. Zugiba said to Dr. Castanon, “How did you take out the heart of a dead man and took [sic] it alive to me to my New York lab?”
Only after giving this analysis, Dr. Zugiba was told the source of
the sample: a consecrated Eucharistic Host. Dr. Castanon then contacted
Dr. Linoli, who had analyzed the samples from the miracle of Lanciano,
to compare the results. They matched exactly. Dr. Linoli and Dr.
Castanon are also convinced that the flesh and blood found in the
Eucharistic miracles in Buenos Aires and in Lanciano—and also the blood
from the Shroud of Turin—are miraculous in origin and are from the same
person of middle eastern descent—namely, Jesus Christ.
Eucharistic miracles, though not part of the Church’s public
revelation binding on all the faithful, are gifts from God that lift the
veil for us with regard to the unswerving Catholic belief in the Real
Presence of Christ in every Eucharist. Jesus gives himself as the
lifeblood of our souls and of the Church. His Body and his Blood are now
ours, as with a family bloodline. As St. Joan of Arc said, “About Jesus
Christ and the Church, I simply know they are just one thing and we
shouldn’t complicate the matter.”
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