Situated on three picturesque hills, the Tuscan city of Siena is famous throughout the world not only for her magnificent medieval architecture, her “piazza del Campo,” and her great saint, Catherine, but also for the Eucharistic miracle that has endured there since 1730.
Contrary to all the laws of physics and chemistry, 223 Hosts, which were consecrated there in August 14, 1730, have to this day preserved their astonishing freshness without succumbing in the slightest degree to the process of decay. The Danish writer and Catholic convert, Johannes Joergensen, observed in 1914 that this was one of the world’s greatest enduring miracles.
The story of this remarkable miracle began in the evening of August 14, 1730, on the eve of the feast of the Assumption of Our Lady. All the inhabitants of Siena assembled in the cathedral to celebrate solemn vespers. The other churches of the city remained closed that evening. Robbers took advantage of the occasion to break into the Basilica of St. Francis. Seeking precious articles, they forced open the tabernacle doors and made off with a silver container filled with consecrated Hosts.
The Franciscans did not discover the theft until the next morning. News of the sacrilege quickly spread among the inhabitants. Grief fell over the city, and the authorities vowed to track down the robbers by every means possible. Late in the morning of the following day, one of the inhabitants found the cover of the stolen container. Two days later, while assisting at Holy Mass at Our Lady’s shrine in Provenzano, a seminarian, Paolo Schiavvi, noticed that the collection box standing beside him was filled with white Hosts. Immediately after Mass, he informed the local pastor, Don G. Bozzegoli, of his find. On opening the box, they discovered 351 Hosts covered with dust and cobwebs. Each Host was carefully cleaned, after which the pastor informed the local archbishop of the discovery. The bishop came quickly to Provenzano to determine if these were indeed the Hosts that had been stolen from the Basilica of St. Francis. Careful examination by the Franciscans confirmed the suspicion that the sought-after Hosts had been found. There were exactly 348 of them, along with six half-Hosts.
The next day, in a solemn procession involving 3000 inhabitants who carried torches and penitential crosses, the Archbishop, A. Zondadari, transferred the recovered Hosts to the Basilica of St. Francis. The influx of the faithful from the surrounding villages and towns was so great that the Hosts had to be displayed for public adoration for several days. Endeavoring to make reparation to God for the sacrilege, the people adored the sacred Hosts with great faith and love. Over 100 of the recovered Hosts were distributed among the faithful during Holy Communion. However, as time went on, the Franciscans and the people became convinced that the recovered Hosts should not to be given out for consumption, but rather preserved for public adoration. With the passage of months and years, the people began to observe to their great astonishment that the Hosts showed no signs of aging, but preserved an amazing freshness, while giving off the pleasant scent of fresh bread.
Father Carlo Vipera, superior general of the Order of Franciscans, was the first to give official recognition of the Hosts in a decree dated April 14, 1780. The decree stated: “We recognize that the fact of the sacred Hosts being preserved in a state of absolute freshness for fifty years is a true miracle.”
The next official acknowledgment of the miraculously preserved Hosts was issued on February 9, 1789. In his report, Archbishop Tiberius Borghese, stated: “With the aid of a magnifying glass, both I and my associates carefully examined the Hosts which had been laid out on two patens. We confirmed their extraordinary freshness and undisturbed state.” The archbishop ordered an experiment to be conducted. Unconsecrated hosts were placed in a sealed container for a period of ten years and preserved alongside the consecrated Hosts. When ten years later the duly appointed ecclesiastical commission opened the container, they found that of the unconsecrated hosts there remained nothing but a dark yellow powder. Under the bishop’s auspices, the commission certified the enduring miracle of the consecrated Hosts being preserved in a state of perfect freshness.
On June 15, 1815, the Archbishop of Siena appointed a special commission made up of theologians and medical doctors to conduct further tests on the sacred Hosts. After careful examination, the commission confirmed the miraculous fact of their enduring freshness. History records many more such tests and studies. The most important of these was the one commissioned by Pope Pius X in 1914. The study was undertaken by a group of leading scientists and professors from Siena and Pisa. Microscopic examination revealed that the Hosts were made up of unleavened wheat flour, which had been preserved in pristine condition. Tests revealed a normal amount of starch. The commission went on to observe that unleavened bread could be preserved for longer periods of time only when it was prepared under sterling conditions and then kept in an antiseptic, hermetically sealed container. But the Hosts had been baked in the traditional way and preserved under normal conditions—i.e. they had been exposed to the action of the air and various microorganisms. They ought then to have undergone decomposition in a matter of a dozen or more years. The commission certified that, contrary to all laws of physics and chemistry, the perfectly preserved Hosts with their astonishing freshness and marvelous scent attested to a great miracle, which science was unable to explain. The leading expert of these studies was the renowned chemist, Dr. Siro Grimaldi. He stated in his report: “The perfectly preserved sacred fragments of unfermented bread are an extraordinary phenomenon that abolishes the natural law of preservation of organic matter. This is a unique fact in the annals of science.”
Further expert analyses were conducted on June 3, 1922, when the Franciscans transferred the sacred Hosts to a new ostensorium. The results of these were identical to those of the previous study: they confirmed the perfect state of preservation and freshness of the Hosts.
In 1950, the miraculous Hosts were transferred to yet another—this time very ornate and costly—ostensorium. Alas, this article proved to be a great temptation to thieves. On the night of August 5, 1956, they made off with the precious article, having tossed the sacred Hosts to the bottom of the tabernacle. Informed of the theft, the archbishop personally counted the Hosts. There were 223 of them, along with two half-Hosts. To this day the Hosts preserve the pleasant smell of unleavened bread. They remain intact and shiny as if they had been baked only days ago.
We need to remember that these Hosts, consecrated in 1730, are truly the Body of Christ. Through this miraculous sign, Jesus Christ desires to impress upon all people of good will that the Eucharist is Himself, truly present in His Risen Body. We ought with all our heart to thank God for this marvelous sign given to us to strengthen our faith in the real presence of the Risen Christ in the Eucharist.
The miraculous Hosts are displayed for adoration by the faithful on the sixteenth of every month, on the anniversary of their theft in 1730. Each year, on the Solemnity of the Body of Christ, they are born in a procession through the streets of Siena. Thousands of the faithful participate in the march.
Upon examining the miraculously preserved Hosts, the famous Italian physicist, Enrico Medi, observed: “History guarantees the absolute continuation of this miracle. These are still the same Hosts that date from August 14, 1730. Human knowledge remains silent in the face of this fact, which stands multiplied 223 times and endures for over two and a half centuries. Not only can human knowledge not explain this fact, but it knows full well that it cannot be explained—and this because it endures in spite of all the well-known and simple laws of nature. We are dealing here with the action of a Cause that is not the subject of scientific inquiry. This direct intervention of God is a miracle in the strict sense of the word, which endures through the ages so as to testify to the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.”
Saints and popes—St. John Bosco, St. Pius X, Blessed Benedict XV, Pius XI, Pius XII, Blessed John XXIII, and Paul VI—all have made their pilgrimage to Siena. And Blessed John Paul II, during his visit to Siena on September 14, 1980, long adored Jesus present in the miraculous Hosts. On completing his adoration, he cried out in ecstasy, “Here is the Presence!”