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.
In the Basilica of San Francesco in Siena, 223 hosts have remained intact for 286 years. Archbishop Tiberio Borghese had some unconsecrated hosts sealed in a tin box for ten years.
When the appointed scientific commission reopened the box, it found only worms and decayed fragments.
The event is contrary to every physical and biological law. The scientist Enrico Medi expressed himself on the matter as follows: «This direct intervention of God is the miracle […], accomplished and miraculously maintained for centuries, to testify to the permanent reality of Christ in the Eucharistic Sacrament.»
Among the most important documents describing the prodigy is a report written by a certain Macchi in 1730. It recounts that on August 14, 1730, some thieves managed to enter the church of San Francesco in Siena and stole the ciborium containing 351 consecrated hosts. Three days later, on August 17, the 351 intact hosts were found amid the dust in the offering box of the sanctuary of Santa Maria in Provenzano. Everyone hurried to celebrate the discovery of the holy hosts, which were immediately returned in a solemn procession to the church of San Francesco. The passing of the years caused no sign of alteration in the particles. On several occasions, distinguished men examined them by every means, and the conclusions were always the same: «The sacred particles are still fresh, intact, physically incorrupt, chemically pure, and show no sign of corruption.» In 1914, Pope Saint Pius X authorized an examination attended by numerous professors of food science, hygiene, chemistry, and pharmacy, including the renowned Professor Siro Grimaldi.
The final conclusion of the report they drew up stated: “The holy particles of Siena are a classic example of the perfect preservation of consecrated unleavened bread particles from the year 1730, and constitute a unique phenomenon, pulsating with relevance, which reverses the natural laws governing the preservation of organic matter. […] It is strange, surprising, abnormal: the laws of nature have been reversed; the glass has become a breeding ground for mold, while the unleavened bread has been more resistant than crystal. […] It is a unique fact enshrined in the annals of science.” Further analyses were carried out in 1922, when the particles were transferred to a cylinder of pure rock crystal, and in 1950 and 1951.
During the pastoral visit he made to the city of Siena on September 14, 1980, Pope John Paul II expressed himself before the miraculous hosts as follows: “It is the Presence!” The perpetual miracle of the most holy particles is kept in the Piccolomini Chapel during the summer months and in the Martinozzi Chapel during the winter months. The citizens of Siena organize numerous initiatives in honor of the holy hosts: the homage of the city districts, the reverence of the children receiving their First Communion, the solemn procession on the feast of Corpus Christi, the Eucharistic novena at the end of September, and the day of Eucharistic adoration on the 17th of every month, commemorating their discovery on August 17, 1730.
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