The Eucharistic Miracle of Siena
The Eucharistic Miracle of Siena
The permanent Eucharistic miracle of Siena is manifested in the prodigious conservation against all physical, chemical or biological laws of 223 fragile hosts, consecrated on August 14, 1730 in the Basilica of San Francisco de Siena and on the same night, sacrilegiously profaned by thieves. strangers, avid for the sacred silver vessel that kept them.
Thanks to the diligent search carried out by the religious and civil authorities, the sacred Particles were found, by chance, on the morning of August 17 in the neighboring sanctuary of Santa María de Provenzano, where the sacrilegious thieves had thrown them into a box of alms. .
Fallen amidst the dust, the cobwebs, and the money in the box, they were piously collected, carefully examined, and duly identified. Tributed a tribute of adoration and reparation by the people, with a very solemn procession, they were taken to San Francisco, in an apotheosis of songs and prayers.
To satisfy the demonstrations of faith and love on the part of the faithful who had accompanied those Particles, the Minor Conventual religious did not consume them. Time passed, but there was no sign of alteration in them, as might have been expected. Evidently, in the designs of Providence, that sacrilegious profanation should remain, through the centuries, as an apologetic testimony of the real presence of Jesus in the Most Holy Eucharist.
Many times, illustrious men have examined them with the means that progress put at their disposal, multiplying, over time, causes and elements that would have favored corruption (contacts, dust, humidity). But science has always concluded its examination by affirming: The sacred particles are still fresh, intact, physically incorrupt, chemically pure, and do not present any principle of corruption.
This was the verdict of the Commission made up of eminent professors of physics, hygiene, chemistry, and pharmacy, which carried out the great scientific examination of June 10, 1914. Direct and immediate observations were renewed in 1922, when Cardinal Juan Tocci placed the Holy Forms in a cylinder of pure rock crystal.
In 1950, the Miraculous Hosts were changed from monstrance to a more attractive and rich one that caught the attention of another thief. During the night of August 5, 1951, he committed another sacrilege against the hosts, but this time he only took the ciborium, leaving the hosts in a corner of the tabernacle. After counting 133 hosts, the Archbishop kept them sealed in a silver ciborium. They were photographed and placed in a reliquary in which they are found today.
The Bishops and officials of the Church went, solemnly, in procession with the Hosts through the city, and had them exposed for a time.
The miraculous hosts are publicly displayed on various occasions, but especially on the 17th of each month, which commemorates the day they were found in the year 1730. On the feast of Corpus Christi, the sacred hosts are carried in a triumphant procession through the streets. streets of Siena.
The miraculous hosts have been visited and worshiped by Saint John Bosco, Pope John XXIII, and John Paul II.
The permanent Eucharistic miracle of Siena, for which time has stopped, offers everyone from the most skeptical to the most absent-minded the possibility of seeing with their own eyes and touching with their hands one of the greatest wonders of Christ on earth. earth, before which science has bowed its head.
The miracle that follows arouses in all the children of God a more ardent desire for the Living Bread that came down from Heaven and a greater love for Him who has become our traveling companion until the end of time: for man, for life. and for the salvation of the world.
El Granito de Arena magazine, October 1984.
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