Blessed Carlo Acutis had conceived and created a beautiful traveling exhibition on Eucharistic Miracles. This exhibition continues to travel throughout Italy and the world; all the Eucharistic miracles featured in the exhibition have been collected in the book Eucharistic Miracles in the World, from which this text is taken.
On December 25, 2013, in the Church of Saint Hyacinth in Legnica, during Holy Mass, at the moment of Communion, a host accidentally fell to the ground and was immediately placed in a container of water and locked in the tabernacle, as prescribed by the Code of Canon Law. Days later, a red stain appeared on its surface, which the then Bishop of Legnica, Stefan Cichy, immediately decided to have analyzed. The results were surprising and confirmed that it was tissue resembling “human heart muscle with alterations that frequently appear during agony.”
On December 25, 2013, at the Church of Saint Hyacinth in Legnica, during the Eucharistic celebration, at the moment of Communion, a consecrated host accidentally fell to the ground and, after being picked up, was placed in a container filled with water.
The parish priest, Father Andrzej Ziombra, recounts that on January 4, 2014, together with other priests, he went to see whether the host had by then dissolved in the water: “We immediately noticed that the host had not dissolved and that a red stain had appeared on about 1/5 of its surface. We then decided to inform the Bishop of what had happened, and he established a special theological and scientific commission to analyze the event. In the meantime, we noticed that as the days passed, the stain on the host changed color, going from deep red to brownish red […]. The sample from the host was taken directly by the scientists on January 26, 2014. For us priests, the miracle was evident.
However, the commission first had to determine whether it was some kind of fungus, mold, or external agent […]. In its first analysis, the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Wrocław immediately ruled out the presence of bacteria or fungi that turn red. The second histopathological analysis showed that some fragments appeared to be part of myocardial tissue. We then decided to seek an additional opinion and took the same samples to the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Szczecin, without specifying where the samples came from. They used a different research method. At the end of the analyses, the Department of Histopathology of the Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin issued a statement announcing that “the histopathological image revealed that the tissue fragments contain fragmented parts of transversely striated muscle.” And this “closely resembles human heart muscle, with alterations that frequently appear during agony.” We did not analyze the blood found on the host, but we only know that human DNA was found.
The results of the analyses were presented at the Vatican, to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which recognized the event’s supernatural nature. It is striking that the test results are similar to those of the Eucharistic miracles of Lanciano, Sokółka (Poland), Tixtla (Mexico), and Buenos Aires (Argentina). On April 17, 2016, Monsignor Zbigniew Kiernikowski, the new bishop of Legnica, announced during Mass that, following the Holy See’s instructions, he had ordered the parish vicar, Father Andrzej Ziombra, “to prepare a suitable place for displaying the precious relic, so that the faithful may express their adoration in an appropriate manner.”
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