Holy Eucharist - Eucharistic Miracle - Living Blood - Bagno di Romagna, Italy

Eucharistic Miracle
Living Blood
Bagno di Romagna, Italy - AD 1412
Feast Day - Corpus Christi 

The town of Bagno di Romagna is located about 55 miles southeast of Bologna.  It was founded by the Romans in the 1st century.

This Eucharistic Miracle took place in 1412 at the monastery of Santa Maria Assunta (St. Mary of the Assumption). Santa Maria Assunta was first founded in 860 AD. It fluctuated from church to monastery over the years.  At the time of the Eucharistic Miracle, it was a monastery called the Abbey Camaldolese of Santa Maria and run by the Camaldolese Monks. 

                                         

During the celebration of the Mass at the moment of Consecration, Fr. Lazzaro da Verona, one of the Camaldolese monks, experienced a strong doubt concerning the Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.  

As Fr. Lazzaro gazed into the chalice, the wine turned blood red and began to boil over the top of the chalice on to the corporal. 

Visibly shaken by the miracle that the Lord had shown him, Fr. Lazzaro prayed for forgiveness and vowed his faith in the physical presence of Our Lord Jesus in the Eucharist.  For the next, and last five years of his life, he lived an exemplary life.  

365 years after the miracle, in 1777,  Pope Pius VI had the blood stained corporal transferred to a suitable silver reliquary. In 1885 the reliquary was opened and the corporal examined.  The bishop from San Sepolcro confirmed that the spots of blood were still clear and red. 

In 1958, 546 years after the miracle occurred, His Excellency Domenico Bornigia had the first scientific examination of the corporal conducted. Through a chemical analysis done at the University of Florence, it was confirmed that the corporal was stained by real Blood. Blood loses its chemical qualities very shortly after it is shed, yet this Blood had not lost Its qualities hundreds of years later.  It was truly living Blood.  

The Sacred Corporal is now kept in a special chapel in the Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta.  It is only on display on Sunday from March to November at the 11AM Mass and on the Feast of Corpus Christi. The church is located at Piazza Ricasoli 13, 47021, Bagno di Romagna. 

But we don't have to go all the way to Bagno di Romagna to experience a Eucharistic miracle -  the precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord is there waiting for us at every Mass and in the tabernacle of our parish church.   

For devotional items related to the Catholic Church, please visit Lynn's Timeless Treasures.  

Index of Eucharistic Miracles 
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Picture of the Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta - Wikimedia

Picture in the Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta depicting the miracle.  - The Eucharistic Miracles of the World (January 2009), p. 103.  

Picture of the Blood stained corporal in the silver reliquary - The Eucharistic Miracles of the World (January 2009), p. 103.  

Picture of priest carrying Blood stained corporal in the silver reliquary - found on Pinterest.