Italy Lanciano (750)

Lanciano's Living Miracle: The Flesh and Blood That Defied Science

In 750 AD, at the Church of St. Legontian in Lanciano (later known as the Church of St. Francis), a doubting priest witnessed the consecrated Host transform into real flesh and blood during Mass. This miraculous event, visible to all present, has been preserved for centuries. In 1970, scientific examinations by Dr. Edward Linoli confirmed the flesh as myocardial tissue and the blood as human, both of type AB. These findings were later corroborated by a WHO commission, which declared the tissue to be living and defied any scientific explanation. This enduring miracle continues to baffle scientists and inspire the faithful.
The Miracle of 750

An inscription in marble from the 17th century recounts the extraordinary Eucharistic miracle that occurred in 750 AD at the Church of St. Francis in Lanciano. A monastic priest, who doubted the real presence of Christ in the consecrated Host, witnessed the Host turn into flesh and blood during the words of consecration. The event was visible to all in attendance. Remarkably, the flesh remained intact, and the blood separated into five unequal parts, which together weighed the same as each part individually.

Scientific Examination of the Relics

In 1970, the Archbishop of Lanciano and the Provincial Superior of the Conventual Franciscans in Abruzzo, with the approval of Rome, requested Dr. Edward Linoli, director of the hospital in Arezzo and professor of anatomy, histology, chemistry, and clinical microscopy, to conduct a thorough scientific examination of the relics. On March 4, 1971, Dr. Linoli presented a detailed report with the following key findings:

  1. The "miraculous flesh" is authentic muscular tissue from the myocardium.
  2. The "miraculous blood" is genuine blood, confirmed by chromatographic analysis with absolute certainty.
  3. Immunological studies verified that both the flesh and blood are human, specifically blood type AB, which is also found in the Shroud of Turin and is common among Middle Eastern populations.
  4. The proteins in the blood were present in normal proportions, matching those found in fresh human blood.
  5. No histological analysis revealed traces of preservatives, debunking any hypothesis of ancient embalming or a hoax.

Dr. Linoli's report, published in The Sclavo Notebooks in Diagnostics (Collection #3, 1971), garnered significant scientific interest. In 1973, the World Health Organization's chief advisory board appointed a scientific commission to verify Linoli's findings. Over 15 months, the commission conducted 500 tests, concluding that the tissue fragments from Lanciano were not embalmed and displayed reactions characteristic of living tissue. Their results fully corroborated Dr. Linoli's conclusions.

Modern Implications

The scientific examination confirmed that the Flesh and Blood of Lanciano remain as they would if freshly drawn from a living being. Published in December 1996 in New York and Geneva, the Medical Commission of the WHO and the UN acknowledged the limits of science in explaining this phenomenon, leaving it as an extraordinary and inexplicable miracle.

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