The Guardian Angel: Eucharistic Miracle, Florence, Italy 1230 & 1595

June 8, 2018 is the feast of the Sacred Heart, and not by accident that we speak of two Eucharistic Miracles in Florence, that were approved, saying they were supernatural, and were indeed the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus. May the Holy Spirit convict you to continue your quest for the fullness of truth from an infinite Holy God that loves you so much, and will not leave you an orphan. This is followed by writings and quotes of Saints about the Eucharist, enjoy and share. To Jesus through Mary, GregoryMary

The reliquaries of two Eucharistic miracles which took place in 1230 and 1595 are held in Florence’s Church of Saint Ambrose. In the miracle of 1230, a distracted priest left several drops of consecrated wine in the chalice after Mass. The next day, returning to celebrate Mass in the same church, he found in the chalice drops of living Blood coagulated and incarnated. The Blood was immediately placed in a crystal cruet. The other Eucharistic miracle took place on Good Friday in 1595, when several fragments of the Host were miraculously unharmed in a church fire.

The first miracle took place on December 30, 1230. A priest named Uguccione, having finished celebrating Mass, did not realize that several drops of consecrated wine remained in the chalice and had turned into blood.

The historian, Giovanni Villani, gives a precise description: “A day later, taking up the chalice, he found living blood coagulated […] and this was shown to all the women of the monastery and to all the locals who were present, to the bishop, and to all the clergy. And then the Precious Blood was revealed to all the Florentines, who gathered with great devotion to see. He took the Precious Blood from the chalice and put the Sacred Species in a crystal cruet and again showed the people, with great reverence.”

Bishop Ardingo of Pavia ordered that the reliquary be brought to him. He kept the Precious Blood for several weeks before returning the miraculous Blood to the sisters of the monastery for safe-keeping near the Church of Saint Ambrose. Pope Boniface IX, in 1399, granted the same indulgence as the Portiuncula to those faithful who visited the Church of Saint Ambrose, and contributed to adorning the reliquary of the miracle.

The 750th anniversary of the miracle was celebrated in 1980. The relic of the coagulated Blood (several drops of Blood that measure about a square centimeter) is conserved in a reliquary which has been placed inside a white marble tabernacle constructed by Mimo da Fiesole.

On Good Friday in 1595, a lit candle on the altar of a side chapel called the Sepulchre, fell to the ground and started a fire. The people immediately rushed to put out the fire and succeeded in saving the Blessed Sacrament and chalice. In the great commotion, six fragments of consecrated Hosts fell from the pyx onto the smoldering carpet, but despite the fire these were found intact and joined together.

In 1628, Archbishop Marzio Medici of Florence examined the fragments of the Hosts, which he found to be incorrupt. He had the Sacred Species placed in a precious reliquary. Every May during the Forty Hours devotion, the two reliquaries are exposed together in a reliquary that also contains a consecrated Host for public adoration.

Some quotes and writings of Saints on the Eucharist, and how appropriate that this is given to us on June 8, 2018, the feast of the Sacred Heart.

"If we but paused for a moment to consider attentively what takes place in this Sacrament, I am sure that the thought of Christ's love for us would transform the coldness of our hearts into a fire of love and gratitude."

- St. Angela of Foligno

"Christ held Himself in His hands when He gave His Body to His disciples saying: 'This is My Body.' No one partakes of this Flesh before he has adored it."

- St. Augustine

"Recognize in this bread what hung on the cross, and in this chalice what flowed from His side... whatever was in many and varied ways announced beforehand in the sacrifices of the Old Testament pertains to this one sacrifice which is revealed in the New Testament."

- from the writings of St. Augustine, Sermon 3, 2; circa A.D. 410 {original translation}

"O Lord, we cannot go to the pool of Siloe to which you sent the blind man. But we have the chalice of Your Precious Blood, filled with life and light. The purer we are, the more we receive."

- St. Ephraem

"When the bee has gathered the dew of heaven and the earth's sweetest nectar from the flowers, it turns it into honey, then hastens to its hive. In the same way, the priest, having taken from the altar the Son of God (who is as the dew from heaven, and true son of Mary, flower of our humanity), gives him to you as delicious food."

- St. Francis de Sales

"When you have received Him, stir up your heart to do Him homage; speak to Him about your spiritual life, gazing upon Him in your soul where He is present for your happiness; welcome Him as warmly as possible, and behave outwardly in such a way that your actions may give proof to all of His Presence."

- St. Francis de Sales

"What wonderful majesty! What stupendous condescension! O sublime humility! That the Lord of the whole universe, God and the Son of God, should humble Himself like this under the form of a little bread, for our salvation"

"...In this world I cannot see the Most High Son of God with my own eyes, except for His Most Holy Body and Blood."

- St. Francis of Assisi

AT THE FEET OF CHRIST IN THE EUCHARIST

From the writings of Saint Faustina

O Jesus, Divine Prisoner of Love, when I consider Your love and how You emptied Yourself for me, my senses deaden. You hide Your inconceivable majesty and lower Yourself to miserable me. O king of Glory, though You hide Your beauty, yet the eye of my soul rends the veil. I see the angelic choirs giving You honor without cease, and all the heavenly Powers praising You without cease, and without cease they are saying: Holy, Holy, Holy.

Oh, who will comprehend Your love and Your unfathomable mercy toward us! O Prisoner of Love, I love up my poor heart in this tabernacle that it may adore You without cease night and day. I know of no obstacle in this adoration: and even though I be physically distant, my heart is always with You. Nothing can put a stop to my love for You. No obstacles exist for me...

O Holy Trinity, One and Indivisible God, may You be blessed for this great gift and testament of mercy. Amen.

I adore You, Lord and Creator, hidden in the Most Blessed Sacrament. I adore You for all the works of Your hands, that reveal to me so much wisdom, goodness and mercy, O Lord. You have spread so much beauty over the earth and it tells me about Your beauty, even though these beautiful things are but a faint reflection of You, incomprehensible Beauty. And although You have hidden Yourself and concealed your beauty, my eye, enlightened by faith, reaches You and my souls recognizes its Creator, its Highest Good, and my heart is completely immersed in prayer of adoration.

My Lord and Creator, Your goodness encourages me to converse with You. Your mercy abolishes the chasm which separates the Creator from the creature. To converse with You, O Lord, is the delight of my heart. In You I find everything that my heart could desire. Here Your light illumines my mind, enabling it to know You more and more deeply. Here streams of grace flow down upon my heart. Here my soul draws eternal life. O my Lord and Creator, You alone, beyond all these gifts, give Your own self to me and unite Yourself intimately with Your miserable creature.

O Christ, let my greatest delight be to see You loved and Your praise and glory proclaimed, especially the honor of Your mercy. O Christ, let me glorify Your goodness and mercy to the last moment of my life, with every drop of my blood and every beat of my heart. Would that I be transformed into a hymn of adoration of You. When I find myself on my deathbed, may the last beat of my heart be a loving hymn glorifying Your unfathomable mercy. Amen.

"Do grant, oh my God, that when my lips approach Yours to kiss You, I may taste the gall that was given to You; when my shoulders lean against Yours, make me feel Your scourging; when my flesh is united with Yours, in the Holy Eucharist, make me feel Your passion; when my head comes near Yours, make me feel Your thorns; when my heart is close to Yours, make me feel Your spear."

- St. Gemma Galgani

I hunger for the bread of God, the flesh of Jesus Christ ...; I long to drink of his blood, the gift of unending love.

- St. Ignatius of Antioch

"Jesus taught a new sacrifice which the Church received from the Apostles and offers throughout the whole world."

- St. Irenaeus (d. 202)

"If Christ did not want to dismiss the Jews without food in the desert for fear that they would collapse on the way, it was to teach us that it is dangerous to try to get to heaven without the Bread of Heaven."

- St. Jerome

"How many of you say: I should like to see His face, His garments, His shoes. You do see Him, you touch Him, you eat Him. He gives Himself to you, not only that you may see Him, but also to be your food and nourishment."

- St. John Chrysostom

"I throw myself at the foot of the Tabernacle like a dog at the foot of his Master."

- St. John Vianney

"All the good works in the world are not equal to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass because they are the works of men; but the Mass is the work of God. Martyrdom is nothing in comparison for it is but the sacrifice of man to God; but the Mass is the sacrifice of God for man."

- St. John Vianney, Cure d'Ars

"Of the sacrifice which we offer in every place, that is, of the bread and chalice of the Eucharist, Malachias has prophesied."

- St. Justin, 2nd Century Martyr

"God dwells in our midst, in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar."

- St. Maximilian Kolbe

"He remains among us until the end of the world. He dwells on so many altars, though so often offended and profaned."

- St. Maximilian Kolbe

"The culmination of the Mass is not the consecration, but Communion."

- St. Maximilian Kolbe

"You come to me and unite Yourself intimately to me under the form of nourishment. Your Blood now runs in mine, Your Soul, Incarnate God, compenetrates mine, giving courage and support. What miracles! Who would have ever imagined such!"

- St. Maximilian Kolbe

"If angels could be jealous of men, they would be so for one reason: Holy Communion."

- St. Maximilian Kolbe

"He is The Bread sown in the virgin, leavened in the Flesh, molded in His Passion, baked in the furnace of the Sepulchre, placed in the Churches, and set upon the Altars, which daily supplies Heavenly Food to the faithful."

- St. Peter Chrysologus (400-450)

"Words cannot express the perfection of his adoration. If Saint John leaped in the womb at the approach of Mary, what feelings must have coursed through Joseph during those six months when he had at his side and under his very eyes the hidden God! If the father of Origen used to kiss his child during the night and adore the Holy Spirit living within Him, can we doubt that Joseph must often have adored Jesus hidden in the pure tabernacle of Mary? How fervent that adoration must have been: My Lord and my God, behold your servant! No one can describe the adoration of this noble soul. He saw nothing, yet he believed; his faith had to pierce the virginal veil of Mary. So likewise with you! Under the veil of the Sacred Species your faith must see our Lord. Ask St. Joseph for his Lively, constant faith."

- St. Peter Julian Eymard

"At Nazareth Joseph's days were filled with work which necessarily took him away at times from his Infant God. During these hours Mary replaced him, but when evening brought him home again, he would pass the entire night in adoration, never tiring, only too happy for the chance to contemplate the hidden riches of Jesus' divinity. For he pierced the rough garments the Child wore, until his faith touched the Sacred Heart. In profound adoration he united himself to the special grace of each one of the events in the life of Jesus. He adored our Lord in His hidden life and in His Passion and Death; he adored in advance the Eucharistic Christ in His tabernacles: there was nothing that our Lord could hide from Saint Joseph. Among the graces which Jesus gave to His foster-father -- and He flooded him with the graces attached to every one of His mysteries -- is that special to an adorer of the Blessed Sacrament. That is the one we must ask of St. Joseph. Have confidence, strong confidence in him. Take him as the patron and the model of your life of adoration."

- St. Peter Julian Eymard