The Eucharistic Miracle of Sokółka

On October 12, 2008, at the church dedicated to Saint An- thony of Sok61ka, the Holy Mass of 8:30 AM is celebrated by a young vicar, Filip Zdro- dowski, During Communion, unknowingly the Host falls from the hands of one of the priests, A woman kneeling, ready to receive the Eucharist, makes him notice it, The priest remains paralyzed from fright and believing it was dirty, places it in the vasculum, a small silver vessel which contains the water munion, At the end of the Holy Mass, the sacristan, Sister Julia Dubowska, takes the vasculum with the Host and for increased safety pours it into another vessel which she then locks in the safe where the chalices were kept, week later, on Sunday, October 19, around 8:00 AM, the sister opens the safe and finds the Host almost dissolved but with some strange red clots in the center. She immediately calls the priests to show them what was discovered. The Host was mostly dissolved.

Only a very small piece of the consecrated bread was left, tightly interconnected to the substance that appeared on its surface. Actually, part of the Host was joined to that "strange red clot". The pastor of Sok61ka then contacted the Metropolitan Curia of Bialystok Ar- chbishop Edward Ozorowski together with the Chancel- lor ofthe Curia, priests and professors examined the Host and, astounded, decide to wait for the development ofthe events and to see what would happen next.

On October 29 the vessel containing the Host is brought into the parish chapel and locked in the tabernacle; the next day, on order ofthe Archbishop, Father Gniedziejko delicately removes with a small spoon the partially dissolved Host with the blood colored substance on its interior and places SOKÖLKA 2008 OCTO//H dissolved Host with the blood colored substance emanated from its interior is the relic that was placed on the white corporal with an embroidered red cross. the tabemacle. Over dme the Host "Rused" with the cor- poral and the red "clot" dried.

Only then two scientists of global fame and specialists in pathological anatomy at the Medical University of Bialystok were consulted. The Me- tropolitan Curia of Bialystok has relased declaration concerning the Eucharistic Miracle that occurred at Sok61ka: On October 12, 2008, a consecrated Host fell out of the hands of a priest while he was distributing Holy Communion. He picked it up and placed it in a vessel filled with water, in the tabernacle.

After Mass, the vessel containing the host was placed in a safe present in the sacristy. 2, On October 19, 2008, after opening the safe one could clearly see a red stain on the Host that had fallen, which with the naked eye immediately gave the impres- into flesh, exactly into tissue of the myocardial muscle. Sion of being a bloodstain.

3, On October 29, 2008, the vessel containing the Host was transferred to the tabemacle of the chapel of the rectory. The next day the Host was removed from the water contained in the vessel and placed on a corporal inside the tabernacle. 4, On January 7, 2009, the sample of the Host was taken and examined independently by two professionals in histopathology at the University of Medicine of Bialys- tok They issued a common declaration which states: 'The sample sent for evaluation looks like myocardial tissue.

In our opinion, of all the tissues of living orga- nis s this is the one that resembles it the most. , The Commission has noted that the analyzed Host is the same one that has been moved from the sacristy to the tabemacle in the chapel of the rectory. Intervention by a d party has not been found.

. The case of Sok61ka does not contradict the faith of the Church, but rather confirms it." SOKÖLKA At the beginning of January of 2009 the Curia of Bialystok asked two eminent specialists in pathologoical anatomy of the Medical University of Bialystok - Professor Maria Elibieta Sobaniec-Lotowska and Professor Stanislaw Sulkowski, to analyze the samples of the bloodstained Host, On Janaury 7 - Professor Sobaniec-Lotowska went to Sok61ka and took from the corporal a minuscule sample of the mysterious substance present in the Host. he professors of the UMB University had un- derlined that, in the case of the examined Host, in the sample they have found numerous bio- morphological indicators typical of cardiac muscle tissue such as, for example, the phenomenon of seg- mentation, namely damage to the fibers of the tissue of the cardiac muscle in the section where communicating junctions [structures characteristic of the cardiac muscle] are found, and the phenomenon of fragmen- tation.

Such damages are visible in the form of nu- merous small lesions. These alterations can be observed only in fibers that were not necrotic, that is alive, and show signs of the fast spasms of the cardiac muscle typical of the extreme phase preceding death. Another important evidence of the fact that the material analyzed corresponded to human cardiac muscle tissue was the central position of the cellular nucleus in the observed fibers, a typical characteristic of cardiac muscle fibers...

The two scientists of Bialystok de- Myocardium reticulum makes them contract, to spread from one cell to another, for the entire volume of the muscle. The contraction of a muscle cell is then propagated to all the other cells. A group of cells located in the sinoatrial node is responsible for this "chain contraction".

The sinoatrial node is found in the right atrium in proximity to the entrance of the superior vena cava. The action potential that generates the myocardial contraction starts from the sinoatrial node and reaches first the atria and then the ventricles. clared...

"Some signs that can correspond to nodes of the contractions have been observed on the section of several fibers. Instead, during the analysis with the elec- tronic microscope, the outlines of the communicating junctions and the thin filaments of the myofibrils were visible". Moreover, the cardiac tissue was joined to the consecrated Host in an inseparable manner.

In the report of the examination performed by Professor Sobaniec-Lotowska and Professor Sulkowski, we find written: "The material resulted was sufficient for the examination; it indicates that it is cardiac muscle tissue, or at least the most similar to it among all the living tis- sues of an organism". "And, something very impor- tant, the material analyzed is composed in all respects of cardiac muscular tissue". This affirmation is re- ported in the "Communication of the Metropolitan Curia of Bialystok" of October 14, 2009, concerning the Eucharistic phenomena at Sok61ka.

The professors discovered also other unexplainable elements. "The sarcomere Z Line Z Line Myofibril tissue that appeared on the Host would therefore have had to undergo the process of autolysis, namely the process of self-destruction by the action of the intracel- lular enzymes; in the material analyzed there were not however observed traces of these alterations!", the two luminaries declared. Another very interesting event observed consists in that the substance found on the corporal, although slightly changed after being removed from the water (it had simply dried) a couple of years ago, it did not change its appearance despite having been neither stabilized nor preserved at a par- ticular temperature.

"This signifies that if the miracle were due to a bacterium, the material would have disin- tegrated, crumbled and would have changed apparance. Any microbial culture, even placed on the cleanest possible material, after a single week appears completely different" added Professor Sulkowski. SOKÖLKA "At first I was convinced that it was a blood clot" - said Professor Sobaniec-Lotowska, But the truth was much more surprising!

The two scientists of Bialystok, who for their own independent investigations, made use of the most modern optical microscopes and the transmission electronic microscope, have reached the same conclusion (Professor Sulkowski, did not know that the sample which he was examining came from a Host): the sample examined was neither a clot, nor blood it was a human cardiac muscle tissue still alive, And, something even more incredible, it was a cardiac muscle with typical indications of the final phase that precedes death. nd yet, several people, who not only have never analyzed the material but they had nei- ther seen it with their own eyes, have affirmed that the red color of the Host is due to prodi- giosin, a red pigment produced by the bacterium Ser- ratia marcescens. "Obviously, this is absurd" affirmed the specialists of Bialystok, also because the material observed corresponds to cardiac muscle and not to a bacterium.

The scientists of Bialystok have analyzed the sample taken in purely scientific terms and not fideistic. Several accusations were even more absurd, like the one put forth by the group of so-called "ra- tionalists" according to whom the tissue analyzed per- tained to a murdered man. The professors reacted with a statement in which they expressed "a profound indignation for the fact that the public opinion was led in error by false pseudoscientific hypotheses on the analyzed phenomenon, above all on the part of people who ignore the particulars relative to the analysis, who words of consecration, though transform the species of bread into the Body of Christ and the species of wine into his Blood.

It provides also a call to the ministers of Holy Com- munion to distribute the Body Iiiiiiiiiiliii The precious Relic is carried in procession have neither access to the material analyzed, nor to the know the analytical techniques applied". The drafting of the protocol on the part of the two scientists of Bialystok required two weeks. When the Curia of Bialystok became aware of the incredible results of the analyses, it formed a special Ecclesiastical Commission convened by the Archbishop on March 30, 2009.

His task consisted in examining the miracle from the theo- logical point of view and in listening to all who had seen the Host or who had been witnesses of those ex- traordinary events. The commission also had the task of dispelling any doubt of deception and of ascer- taining that no one had furtively substituted the Host in the tabernacle, The representatives of the commis- Sion - the distinguished professors of the Seminary of Bialystok - interrogated all the witnesses, verifying the sincerity of their testimonies. The work undertaken by the Ecclesiastical Commission has produced the fol- Øasa w Eucharyg.

takt*' I thru suvi r. been transferred from the sacristy to the tabernacle of the chapel in the rectory. The intervention of strangers was not observed". This was moreover categorically excluded also by the two scientists of Bialystok. It was not possible that someone had placed a fragment of a human body in the tabernacle.

What made one think so? The fragments which composed the Host were tightly interconnected to the fibers of the human tissue; they penetrated each other, as if a fragment of "bread" had suddenly transformed itself in "body". It is not possible to manipulate an event of this type.

No one, absolutely no one, would have been able to do it. "Even the scientists of NASA, who have at their disposal the most modern analytical techniques, would not be able to artificially recreate such a thing", affirmed Professor Sobaniec-Lotowska, adding that this fact has been for her of particular importance.