The Catholic Defender: The Eucharistic miracle of Augsburg

While stationed in Germany I made a pilgrimage to Augsburg to see this miracle. I took one of my Soldiers who after this pilgrimage converted to the Catholic Faith. The following is the story:

1194, a woman from Augsburg who was particularly devoted to the Most Holy Sacrament, received Holy communion. After communion, without being noticed, she put the Host in a handkerchief, took the Blessed Sacrament home and placed the Eucharistic Species in a container of wax inside a cupboard.

In those days it was very difficult to find tabernacles in the church so as to be able to practice Eucharistic worship. Only in 1264, with the introduction of the Feast of Corpus Domini (Corpus Christi) did such devotion become commonplace.

Five years passed and on the 11th of May 1199, the woman, tormented by remorse, confessed to the superior of the convent of the Heilig Kreuz, Father Berthold, who had her bring the Host back.

The priest opened up the wax covering that enclosed the Host and saw that the Holy Eucharist had been transformed into bleeding Flesh. The Host appeared “divided into two Parts connected together by the thin threads of the bleeding Flesh.”

Father Berthold went immediately to the bishop of the city of Udalskalk who ordered that the Miraculous Host be “transferred, accompanied by the clergy and by the people into the cathedral and exhibited in an ostensorium of crystal for public worship.”

The miracle continued: the Host began to grow and to swell up and this phenomenon lasted before the eyes of all from Easter Sunday until the Feast of St. John the Baptist.

Following this, Bishop Udalskalk had the Host brought back near the convent of the Heilig Kreuz and proclamed that “in memory of such a memorable and extraordinary event,” there should be a special commemoration each year in honor of the holy relic.

In 1200, Count Rechber donated to the Augustinian Fathers a rectangular chest of silver with an opening in the front for the placement of the Host of the miracle.

Besides the Eucharistic miracle, other extraordinary incidences took place, such as the apparition of the Host with Baby Jesus dressed in white with radiant face and His forehead encircled with a crown of gold, or in another case the bleeding of the crucifix of the church, or the apparition of Jesus blessing the assembly of worshippers.