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.
The relic of the Eucharistic miracle that occurred in Herkenrode in 1317 is displayed in St. Quentin Cathedral in Hasselt.
Over the centuries, numerous examinations have been carried out to verify the miraculous preservation of the consecrated host from which blood flowed.
We recall the one carried out in the 18th century by Apostolic Nuncio Carafa and the Bishop of Liège, or the one carried out by the Archbishop of Mechelen during a visit by Archduchess Isabella.
On July 25, 1317, the parish priest of the church of Viversel was called to the bedside of one of his seriously ill parishioners to administer the Holy Sacraments. Upon arriving at the sick man’s home, he placed the bag containing the pyx with the consecrated host on a table in the entrance and went to hear the sick man’s confession. One of the family members, curious about the bag, opened it without being noticed. He took the pyx out of it, lifted its lid, and put his hand inside.
As soon as he realized that there was a host inside, he immediately put everything back in order. Meanwhile, the priest had left the sick man's room to retrieve the host with which he would give him Communion. He took the bag containing the ciborium, and when he opened it, he saw that the host he himself had consecrated during Mass had become stained with blood and was as if stuck to the linen covering the bottom of the vessel. Disturbed and panic-stricken, under the pretext of having forgotten something, he hurried out of the house and went to the parish priest of nearby Lumen to tell him what had happened. The latter advised him to take the host to the Abbey of Herkenrode. It was August 1, 1317.
The priest set out carrying the ciborium, and extraordinary events occurred along the way. As soon as he arrived at the Benedictine monastery, he showed all the religious the bloodstained host. The face of Christ crowned with thorns then appeared on the host, and there were numerous testimonies to this. Hasselt Cathedral houses a painting depicting a flock kneeling as the priest carrying the sacred relic passes by (in this place, called Sacramentsberg, a small chapel was built as a perpetual memorial).
Subsequently, “the Holy Sacrament of the miracle,” which had been placed in a reliquary and displayed for the veneration of the faithful, brought about various healings and, on several occasions, protected the monastery of Herkenrode from fire. The relic of the miracle was kept at the abbey until 1796, after which it was safeguarded by various families until, in 1804, it was transferred to the Church of Saint Quentin in Hasselt.
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