Lanciano is a small town with a population of only 30,000 plus. So few that there's not even a person in sight when I took this photo.
This is the Church where the Eucharistic Miracle happened.
So here’s the story: In the 8th century, there was this monk who celebrated mass but doubted Jesus’ presence in the Eucharist. One time, during the Holy mass, after the consecration, the Host changed into flesh and the wine into live blood, which coagulated into five globules of different shapes and sizes. The photo below isn’t that clear, but the host is housed in that circular container (top part of the vessel) and the wine on the cup at the base of the vessel.
Here are close up shots I got online…
The flesh and blood were subject to scientific studies and the conclusions were - the flesh and blood were real, they belong to a human species and they have the same blood type - AB. The flesh consists of muscular tissues of the heart, and the blood had traces of minerals like calcium, potassium, chlorides, etc.
Some doubters speculated that the flesh might have just been cut from a cadaver but a doctor and scientist said that “it would have been difficult, next to impossible, for anyone to have cut a slice of the heart in the way that it was done.” The blood has also an unusual characteristic - when liquified, it retains the chemical properties of freshly shed blood. As one article says “when we cut ourselves and stain our clothes, the chemical properties of the blood are gone within 20 minutes to a half hour. If blood is not refrigerated within an hour maximum, the composition rapidly breaks down. If blood were taken from a dead body, it would lose its qualities quickly through decay.”
The turning into flesh and blood is one miracle. How the flesh and blood were preserved in their natural state for more than 1,200 years without any chemical preservatives is another! Wow…
