The Eucharistic Miracle & the Holy Face’s Sanctuaries – Private Tour from Rome

In the Region of Abruzzo, at Lanciano, the Church of St. Francis holds the relics of the earliest-known Eucharistic Miracle (from 750 A.D.). During Holy Mass a priest, doubtful of the Body of the Lord’s presence in the Sacramental Host, witnessed its transformation into flesh - and that of the wine into blood - after he had pronounced the words of the consecration. The Eucharist presupposes the presence of Christ and reminds of his sacrifice in the name of humanity; the Eucharistic prayer and the operation of the Holy Spirit are the means to transubstantiation, or the transformation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. During the Eucharist, taking the host and wine – the Holy Sacrament - on a quotidian basis is not a miracle in itself, as in their form and substance they remain unaltered. Rather, in Church history numerous Eucharistic Miracles have been documented; in these special cases, the physical transformation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ has been witnessed. Such miraculous events have often been verified in masses given by priests that doubted in particular the presence of the Body of the Lord in the consecrated host – some of these cases include that of the Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano, of Trani, and in several events of sacrilegious theft of the host from the Church. Other Eucharistic Miracles refer to the miraculous preservation of the Sacramental bread, for instance when it has remained intact after fires (e.g. the Eucharistic Miracle of Florence). The term Eucharist, which means Holy Communion, derives from (εὐχαρίστω), Greek for "I give thanks," an expression of thanksgiving to Jesus Christ for his sacrifice to humanity. For Christians, the Eucharist is the Sacrament established by Jesus during the Last Supper, on the eve of his passion and death.