A Eucharistic miracle in Legnica

By Fr. Mieczysław Piotrowski S.Chr.,
Love One Another! 2017-40
Faith

Through Eucharistic miracles, Jesus wakes us from spiritual lethargy and calls on us to believe in his real presence in the Eucharist.

The latest Eucharistic miracle, announced by Church authorities on April 10, 2016, took place in St. Hyacinth’s Church, Legnica, Lower Silesia, Poland. When faith in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist wavers or is lost altogether, our Lord and Savior, through extraordinary signs and miracles, reaffirms his teaching on the Eucharist and calls on us to mend our ways. Instituting the Sacrament of Eucharist during the Last Supper, Jesus did not say that the bread and wine were symbols, but that they actually changed into his Body and Blood. Taking the bread, he said clearly: “This is my Body” and holding the cup with the wine: “This is my Blood” (Matt 26:26-28). After the words of consecration spoken by the priest during Mass, admittedly the material elements of bread and wine remain, but their substance undergoes miraculous spiritual change imperceptible to our senses.

The fragment of the Holy Host that was transformed came from the tissue of a human heart – alive, and in a state of great suffering and agony

St. John Paul II wrote in the encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia that the Eucharist is “the source and summit of Christian life. For the Most Holy Eucharist contains the Church’s entire spiritual wealth” (EE 1). He emphasized that in the Eucharist Christ had made a gift of himself, of his person in his sacred humanity, as well as the gift of his saving work. […] When the Church celebrates the Eucharist, the memorial of her Lord’s death and resurrection, this central event of salvation becomes really present and “the work of our redemption is carried out […].This sacrifice is so decisive for the salvation of the human race that Jesus Christ offered it and returned to the Father only after he had left us a means of sharing in it as if we had been present there. Each member of the faithful can thus take part in it and inexhaustibly gain its fruits” (EE 11).

How did the Eucharistic miracle come about?

On Christmas Day 2013, in St. Hyacinth’s Church, Legnica, Lower Silesia, Poland, during the first morning Mass, a priest who was passing Holy Communion to congregation members inadvertently dropped the Host on the floor. He immediately picked it up and next – in compliance with the rules applicable to such situations – put it into a cup of water and put it away in the tabernacle. Usually, after several days a Host completely dissolves in water. Meanwhile, the Host, for unknown reasons, did not dissolve. On January 4th, one of the priests noticed that a red stain appeared on 1/5 of its surface. The next day, the parish priest, Fr. Andrzej Ziombra, informed Bishop Stefan Cichy, the diocesan bishop at that time, of the occurrence. The bishop ordered Fr. Ziombra to monitor for two weeks what would happen to the Host.

After 14 days, the white portion of the Host had dissolved in water. Only its stained portion remained and looked like a clot of blood, measuring 1.5×0.5 cm. It was taken out of the water, placed on a corporal (communion cloth) and put away in the tabernacle. The bishop appointed a commission to explain this mysterious phenomenon.

The members of the Church commission asked scientists from the Department of Forensic Medicine, Wrocław Medical University, to collect samples and examine them. On January 26, 2014, 15 samples were collected.

Examinations by the Wrocław scientists ruled out that the red stain on the Host was produced by bacteria or fungi. Meanwhile, histopathologic examinations showed that some of its fragments resembled the heart muscle. The scientists, however, were unable to find any DNA.

The Church commission, therefore, began to look for a scientific institution capable of using more advanced methods of examination. They approached the Department of Forensic Medicine, Szczecin Medical University, headed by a renowned pathomorphologist, Prof. Mirosław Parafiniuk. It is this Department that uses the state-of-the-art technologies to genetically identify human remains. For instance, they identify the bodies of Polish national heroes murdered during the Nazi and Communist occupations.

Professor Parafiniuk and his team re-examined the same samples that had been studied in Wrocław. Using a UV microscope, fitted with special filters, they discovered the fibers of a human heart muscle in a state of fragmentation, that is, in the state of agony. This came as a shock for the scientists, because they had made a discovery that was inexplicable from the scientific point of view. Examination results left no doubt that the samples contained the tissue of a heart muscle at the moment of agony. The report of the Department of Forensic Medicine read: “The histopathologic picture was found to contain tissue fragments of a fragmented striated muscle. […] The whole picture […] resembles most a heart muscle […] with lesions that often accompany an agony. Genetic examinations suggest that the tissue is of a human origin.”

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said that there was scientific and moral certainty that we were presented with a supernatural occurrence

Bishop Zbigniew Kiernikowski, the current bishop of the Legnica diocese, went to the Vatican and submitted both expert reports to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in January 2016. In the Holy Week of 2016, he received a reply in which the Congregation said that there was scientific and moral certainty that we were presented with a supernatural occurrence. The reply also contained permission to announce to the faithful that a Eucharistic miracle had taken place and prepare a place of cult.

On April 10, 2016, Bishop Kiernikowski issued a communiqué, informing the faithful about the extraordinary Eucharistic miracle. In it, we could read: “In January this year, I presented the entire matter to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Today, following the recommendation of the Holy See, I order Father Andrzej Ziombra, the parish priest, to prepare a suitable place for putting the Relic on display so that the faithful can adore it. Furthermore, I wish that suitable information be made available to people visiting the church and systematic teaching be offered to the faithful to raise their awareness of the Eucharistic cult. In addition, I order that a book be kept for the purpose of recording any graces obtained and other occurrences having a supernatural character. I hope that all this will strengthen the cult of the Eucharist and will bear fruit by influencing the life of people approaching this Relic. We interpret this extraordinary sign as a special expression of kindness and love on the part of God who lowers himself so much to man.”

The Heart that suffers and is in agony

The scientists have found that the stained part of the Host from Legnica is a muscle tissue of a human heart at the moment of agony. Isn’t this miraculous sign an extraordinary call from Christ to each of us to accept with deep faith the fact that during every Eucharist the mystery of his passion, death and resurrection is really made present? In a similar manner, Christ called on us to believe in his presence in the Eucharist through other miraculous signs that took place in Sokółka, Buenos Aires or Lanciano. An astonishing similarity is shared by all these occurrences.

On October 19th, it was noticed that the center of the white Host turned into a bleeding body fragment. On request from the archbishop, samples were taken to be examined by two renowned scientists from Białystok Medical University.

Professor Sobaniec-Łotowska and Professor Sulkowski, independently of each other and adhering to all scientific procedures, conducted histopathologic examinations of the samples taken from the transfigured Host.

The results of two separate, independent examinations are absolutely consistent: the mysterious substance into which the fragment of the most holy Host changed is the tissue of a human heart which is alive, in great pain, and in a state of agony, one preceding a myocardial infraction, as it were.

The scientists wrote: “Such lesions appear only in non-necrotic fibers and reflect rapid contractions of the heart muscle in the agonal period preceding death […]. The central portion of the Host changed into the tissue of a heart muscle, forming an inseparable structure with the remaining portion of the white Host. […] This extraordinary and mysterious phenomenon of the white matter of the Host merging with the fibers of the muscle of a human heart was observed, examined and photographed under both a light microscope and a transmission electron microscope. This demonstrates that any human interference has to be ruled out.”

Through this miraculous sign, Jesus underscores the fact that his passion, death and resurrection are made present in every Mass.

Remarkable conclusions were also reached by scientists examining a Eucharistic miracle in Buenos Aires. On August 18, 1996, the following incident was reported to have happened in one of the churches of the Argentinean capital. Towards the end of the Mass, Father Alejandro Pezet was shown a profaned Host, abandoned on a candlestick in the back of the church. The priest took it, put it in a vessel of water and put it away in the tabernacle. On August 26th, Father Alejandro opened the tabernacle and to his great astonishment he saw that the profaned Host had changed into a bleeding substance.

“I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53)

He immediately reported this fact to Cardinal Bergolio who told him to keep the fact confidential and to wait patiently. Only on October 5, 1999, on the Cardinal’s orders, scientists took a sample of this Host. It was sent to New York City to be examined. In order not to suggest anything, scientists in New York City were not told where this sample had been taken from. The team of American scientists was headed by Dr. Frederic Zugibe, a well-known NYC cardiologist and forensic medicine pathologist. Scientific examinations showed the substance to be of human flesh and blood in which human DNA was present. In the examination report, we can read: “The studied substance is a heart muscle fragment located in the wall of the left ventricle, from the vicinity of the valves. This muscle is responsible for heart contractions […]. The heart muscle is in an inflammatory state, there are many white blood cells in it. This indicates that this heart was alive when the sample was collected. I claim that the heart was alive, because white blood cells die outside of a living organism, they need it to keep them alive. Their presence, therefore, demonstrates that the heart was alive when the sample was taken. What is more, these white cells permeated the tissue, which indicates that the heart suffered, for instance, like a person who was badly beaten around the chest.”

In this case, too, we have been given a particularly strong sign: “a heart that is alive and is in great pain.”

Lanciano

One of the most famous Eucharistic miracles took place in the Basilian Monastery, Lanciano, Italy, in the 8th century. One of the monks, when celebrating Mass was going through a crisis of faith. As chronicles of those times record, after the congregation, in the presence of the priest and the congregation, the Host turned into a human heart and the wine changed into blood.

Completed on March 4, 1971, the results of scientific examinations bore out a common story. From the scientific point of view, the miraculous Host contains a complete human heart. All elements that make it up are there. The examinations demonstrated the heart to be dried up and to bear no traces of cutting, while inside its tissues there are living proteins. In a manner that science cannot explain, five dried blood clots have survived as well. They were examined and proven to be real human blood of the AB group. The same blood group was identified on the Shroud of Turin.

I am hidden in the Host

Through Eucharistic miracles, Jesus lets us know that the greatest treasure for each of us is Christ himself, permanently present with us in the sacrament of the Eucharist, in the mystery of his passion, death and resurrection.

Offering himself to us in the Holy Communion, Christ transforms us with the power of the Holy Spirit to allow us to share in the life and love of the Holy Trinity. For this reason he warns us: “I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. […]. Whoever eats me will live because of me […]. But the one who eats this bread will live forever” (John 6:53, 57-58).

This is how Jesus explained to the mystic Alicja Lenczewska the mystery of his real but hidden presence in the Eucharist: “I hide myself so that I do not captivate you with the magnificence of my gift. I desire that you be so happy like no man can imagine and sense. The entire history of mankind and of every man is conducted by me in such a way so that you are prepared to be united with me in eternity. Now you can meet me in prayer and meditation upon my life, Word, and signs I have given you and continue to give. The most telling sign is my presence in the Eucharist. I am hidden in the Host and by its consumption, a soul meets me, alive and real, although hidden from the mind and the bodily senses.

You can come to know and touch me with a loving and confident heart – the heart of a child. The greater your faith and love are, the stronger the unity with me and the deeper the knowledge of me.

Beware of mindless and indifferent acceptance of me in the Holy Communion. This is a great sin and a profanation of my Love and my Gift born in the Blood of Golgotha.

My child, how much I have to hide myself in order not to burn your soul with the fire of my Love and not to kill your body with the power of my Fatherly tenderness. Why, I love so much and desire to be loved.

The Eucharist makes present the entire mystery of our salvation: the passion, death and resurrection of Christ. Jesus says: “Everything that you own and whoever you are is my gift of Love. Absolutely everything. And despite your rebellions and instances of ingratitude I still love you, await your return and make a continuous sacrifice of myself to save you. This sacrifice is eternal, because it abides and takes place all the time. This is an extratemporal and timeless Sacrifice. You live in it and breathe it. It saves you in each moment of your life.”

Source: https://loamagazine.org/archive/2017/2017-40/a-eucharistic-miracle-in-legnica

The above article was published with permission from Miłujcie się! in May 2021.

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