EUCHARISTIC MIRACLES. — The Eucharist, although it entails Transubstantiation, the presence «per modum substantiae» of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, and the permanence of the accidents (v.) without a subject of “inhesion,” is not a miracle in the strict sense, since everything in it takes place outside sensible experience; the Eucharist is therefore a mystery, not a miracle. Sometimes, however, sensible and extraordinary events have occurred in the consecrated Species or in relation to them, e.g., the changing of the Host into living flesh or of the wine into blood, the preservation of the Species for a long time, and the instantaneous healing of a sick person. These events are properly the Eucharistic miracles, with which the history of Christian devotion is studded.
From the patristic period onward, eminent men reported extraordinary events connected with the Eucharist: prodigies of various kinds (s. Cipriano, De Lapsis, 25-26: PL 4, 499-501), healings (s. Gregorio Nazianzeno, Adv. Iulianum, 2, 1: PG 35, 666; s. Agostino, Ep., 98, 4: PL 33, 361), divine protection (s. Ambrogio, De excessu fratris Satyri, 1, 46: PL 16, 132; s. Gregorio Magno, Dialog., 3, 36: PL 77, 304), punishment of sacrileges (Ottato di Milevi, De schismate Donatistarum, 2, 19: PL 11, 972), defense of Catholic doctrine and condemnation of heresy (Giovanni Mosco, De prato spirituali, 29, 30, 79, in P. Pourrat, La spiritualité chrétienne, I, Parigi 1931, p. 445). At Paray-le-Monial there is a large map indicating 132 places where Eucharistic miracles have occurred, and the list would grow considerably if one wished to add all the similar events with which religious chronicles abound.
Already s. Tommaso had posed the problem «utrum quando in hoc Sacramento miraculose apparet caro vel puer, sit ibi vere corpus Christi» (Sum. Theol., 3°, q. 76, a. 8); it is well known that his subtly detailed solution concerns the manner, not the fact, since the Eucharistic miracle, as regards its possibility and probative value, falls within the general economy of those extraordinary events that form the basis of the Christian faith.
The Eucharistic miracle, being particularly directed toward confirming faith in the mystery of the Real Presence, is therefore beyond dispute as to its possibility and probative efficacy, but is subject to all the precautions imposed by sound historical criticism.
The Eucharistic miracles are classified according to the various phenomena as follows: a) Bleeding Hosts: Lanciano (8th century), Ferrara (1171), Alatri (1228), Firenze (1230), Bolsena (1263), Offida (1273), Berlino (1510), etc.; b) Miraculously preserved Hosts: Morrovalle (1562), Favernay (1618), Siena (1730), etc.; c) luminous apparition of consecrated Hosts: Torino (1453), Paterno near Napoli (1772), etc.; d) apparition of Jesus in the Host: Braine (1153), Ulmes in the diocese of Angere (1668), etc.; e) punishment of those who profane the Eucharist: Lovanio-Bruxelles (1369), Volterra (1471), Boston (1834), etc.; f) miraculous healings: Parigi (1725), Lourdes, Loreto, Fatima. Among these Eucharistic miracles, those that occurred at Torino, Siena, and Favernay are particularly well documented, especially those that take place at Lourdes. On the celebrated miracle of Bolsena (S. Corporale di Orvieto), see the study by A. Lazzarini (
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See plate LXX.In particular: J. Corblet, Histoire du Sacrement de l'Eucharistie, II, Parigi 1886, pp. 559-88 (numerous Latin, Italian, French, English, and German works on the various Eucharistic miracles are indicated, but they can serve only as a point of departure); anon., Monografia storica dell'Ostia incornata, ovvero il miracolo eucaristico avvenuto in Alatri, Alatri 1896; B. Altaner, Venturino von Bergamo, Breslavia 1911 (it discusses the miracle of b. Imelda); A. Ruelli, De sacris particulis ab anno 1730 in Senensi basilica S. Francisci incorrupte servatis, Siena 1917 (a well-conducted study); A. Morini, La reliquia del «Corpus Christi» di Cascia, Firenze 1930; E. Allodoli, Il m. e. del 1230 a Firenze, in Mistero di Fede (single issue of the 2nd Florentine Eucharistic Congress), there 1937, pp. 31-33; P. Browe, Die eucharistischen Wunder des Mittelalters, Breslavia 1938 (the best work on the subject, though it does not deal ex professo with the miracle of Bolsena); E. Pirollay, L'Hostie sauvée des flammes, Parigi 1950 (a reliable monograph on the miracle of Favernay); A. Lazzarini, Documenti dei sec. XIII e XIV sul Miracolo di Bolsena, Roma 1951. Antonio Piolanti