The Eucharistic Miracle of MariaDaCosta

MIRACLES—Mystics panels 11/02/08 12:12 Page 14 BLESSED ALEXANDRINA MARIA DA COSTA PORTUGAL, 1904-1955 Alexandrina remained paralyzed at age 21 from a dramatic incident in which she fled from the threat of violence, She did not permit herself to be overcome by sadness and by loneliness, but thought: "Jesus, You are a prisoner in the tabernacle as I am here on my bed, so that we can keep company' Following the physical sufferings from the paralysis, mystical sufferings were added: for four years, every Friday she saw the sorrows of the Passion, and after this period, for another 13 years until her death she was nourished only by the Eucharist, Her life became a continuous prayer for the conversion of sinners, lexandrina Maria was born in Balasar, Portugal on March 30, 1904. At age 14, in order to escape an attack by three men and to maintain her purity, she jumped from the window, but did not escape without suffering injury. The consequences were terrible, if not immediate.

In fact, several years later, she became bedridden from a progressively increasing paralysis, from which she suffered for the remaining 30 years of her life. Yet, she did not despair, but entrusted herself to Jesus with these words: "As you are a prisoner in the tabernacle and I am a prisoner on my bed for doing Your will, so we can keep ourselves company". As a result, she began to live through ever more powerful mystical experiences, and from Friday, October 3, 1938 until March 24, 1942, for up to 182 times, she relived the sufferings of the Passion.

Beginning in 1942 until her death, Alexandrina was fed only by the Eucharist, and them, and trample on them until during a period of convalescence at the Foce del Douro Hospital near Oporto, for forty days and forty nights she was under supervision by several doctors in her absolute fast and her condition of anuria (absence of urine). After 10 long years of paralysis which she had offered as Eucharistic reparation for the conversion of sinners, on July 30, 1935, Jesus appeared to her saying: "I have put you in the world so that you may draw life only from Me, to bear witness to the world how precious the Eucharist is. [ ...l str est that keeps souls in bondage it Satan is the flesh and the sins of impurity.

Never has there been such a spread of vices, wickedness and crimes as there is today! Never has there been so much sin [ ...l The Eucharist - My Body and Blood - Behold, the Eucharist is the salvation of the world." Mary also appeared to her on September 12, 1949, with the Rosary in her hand, saying to her "The world is in agony and is dying in sin. My desire is for prayer, my desire is for penance.

I have protected with this, my Rosary, all those whom I love and the whole world.' On October 13, 1955, the anniversary of the last apparition of the Blessed Mother at Fatima, Alexandrina was heard exclaiming: "I am happy, for I am on my way to heaven." She died at 7:30 in the evening on that very day.