Eucharistic Miracles: Bolsena-Orvieto, 1263

Last week we began the discussion of the Eucharistic Miracles, beginning with the first, and possibly greatest, miracle at Lanciano. But these miracles have popped up from time to time throughout the centuries, and our featured miracle didn’t occur until 500 years later!

The story goes that a German priest was on a pilgrimage travelling to Rome. He was a good and faithful priest, attending to his duties, but like the priest at Lanciano, he had begun to struggle with his belief in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Stopping at Bolsena to rest, he celebrated Mass at the tomb of St. Christina. As the priest spoke the words of consecration, the host began to bleed onto his hands, and then onto the corporal, a linen cloth on the altar.

The priest was so dumbfounded that he immediately suspended the Mass, and left for Orvieto, a city about eleven miles away where Pope Urban IV happened to be staying (of course!). After listening to the priest’s incredible story, the pope commissioned an investigation of the corporal and the miracle reported by the priest. After receiving the reports of the study, the pope declared that there was no natural cause for what had taken place. The host and corporal were enshrined in the Cathedral of Orvieto, where they can be seen today.

Inspired by what he had witnessed, Pope Urban instituted the new Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, or Corpus Christ. He also commissioned the Dominican scholar Thomas Aquinas to compose prayers and a Mass for the occasion, which resulted in the great Eucharistic hymns Tantum Ergo and O Salutaris. Even today, we continue to sing these hymns at St. Michael every Wednesday for Eucharistic Adoration.

We’ll be celebrating the Feast of Corpus Christi in just a few weeks, so it’s interesting to find out a little of the background and how that feast day came about. Let’s pray that the awe of the Eucharist that filled the hearts of the people of Orvieto would fill our hearts as well!