The Eucharistic Miracle of Siena

MIRACOLI—panneaux 12/05/06 14 : 34 Page 29 In the Basilica of San Francesco in Siena, 223 consecrated Hosts have remained intact for 276 years, (Archbishop T iberio Bor- ghese sealed unconsecrated hosts in a tin box for ten years, scientific commission put in charge when the box was reope- ned found only worms and rotted fragments,) The Siena event is against any physical and biologi- cal law. scientist Enrico Medi stated: "This direct intervention from God is the miracle ac- complished and maintained for centuries, to testify to the perma- nent reality of Christ in the Eu- charistic Sacrament" , mong the most important documents that describe the miracle, is a memoir written by a certain Macchi in 1730, in which is written that on August 14, 1730 thieves were able to enter San Francesco's Church in Siena and steal the chalice containing 351 consecrated Hosts. After three days, on August 17th, the 351 consecrated Hosts were found intact in the dust of the alms box of the sanctuary of Santa Maria in Provengano.

The entire population celebrated the finding of the consecrated Hosts which were immediately taken back to the church of San Francesco in a solemn procession. With the passing of time the Hosts did not change in appearance. Many times, di- stinguished men examined them with every means available and the conclusions were always the same: "The Sacred Hosts are still fresh, intact, uncorrupted, chemically pure, and do not pre- before the Hosts of the miracle many professors of health, chemistry and phar- maceutics, among whom was also the well-k- nown Professor Siro Grimaldi.

COL of the edited repor of the test stated: "The Sacred Hosts of Siena are the classic example of the perfect con- servation of particles from unleavened bread, consecrated in the year 1730, and constitute a unique and most interesting phenomenon which reverses the natural laws of conservation of organic matter... It is strange, surprising, abnormal... the laws of nature have been rever- sed.

In the glass there was mold, the unleave- ned bread has been more refractory of the cry- it is a unique fact contained in the annals of science." Additional tests were done monk who, tormented by doubts regarding the Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, is freed from the devil after receiving Communion in 1922, on the occasion of the transfer of the Hosts in a cylinder of pure crystal, in 1950 and 1951. Pope John Paul II, during a visit in the city of Siena on September 14, 1980, said regarding the Hosts: "It is the Real Presence!" The perma- nent miracle of the Sacred Hosts is kept in the Chapel Piccolimini in the summer months, and in the Chapel Martinozzi in the winter months. Numerous are the initiatives that induce the citi- zens of Siena in honor of the Sacred Hosts: the tribute of the political districts, the respect of children having recently made their First Holy Communion, the solemn procession in the cele- bration of Corpus Christi, the Eucharistic cere- mony at the end of September, the day of Eucha- ristic adoration on the 17th of each month in memory of the recovery of the Sacred Hosts on August 17, 1730.