Joan Hartzell



ByIn 1194, a woman from Augsburg who was particularly devoted to the Most Holy Sacrament and wanted to have a consecrated Host in her home, received Holy Communion and, without being noticed, placed the Host in a handkerchief, took it home, and placed it between two pieces of wax inside a cupboard. Five years passed and on the 11th of May 1199, the woman, tormented by remorse, confessed to the superior of the convent of the Heilig Kreuz, Father Berthold, who returned the Host to the Church of the Holy Cross. The wax covering that enclosed the Host was opened where it was discovered that the Holy Eucharist had appeared “divided into two parts connected together by the thin threads of the bleeding flesh.” Father Berthold went immediately to the bishop of the city of Udalskalk who ordered that the Miraculous Host be “transferred into the cathedral and exhibited in an ostensorium of crystal for public worship.”The Host began to grow and to swell up and this phenomenon lasted before the eyes of all from Easter Sunday until the Feast of St. John the Baptist. It cracked the wax casing and separated from it. Following this, Bishop Udalskalk had the Host brought back near the convent of the Heilig Kreuz and proclaimed that “in memory of such a memorable and extraordinary event,” there should be a special commemoration each year in honor of the holy relic. The miraculous Host has been kept under glass in the Church of the Holy Cross in perfect condition for over 780 years.Besides the Eucharistic miracle, other extraordinary incidences took place, such as the apparition of the Host with Baby Jesus dressed in white with radiant face and His forehead encircled with a crown of gold, or in another case the bleeding of the crucifix of the church, or the apparition of Jesus blessing the assembly of worshippers.Over the centuries various analyses were done which have always maintained that it is flesh and human blood.www.therealpresencedigilander.libero,it/rexur/miracoli/inglesi/index.htmEucharistic Miracles, Joan Carroll Cruz