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. (Giovanni Villani was an Italian banker, diplomat and chronicler who wrote Nuovo Cronica on the history of Florence.)
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.
THE SECOND MIRACLE:
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 contained a consecrated Host for public adoration.
BOOK & ORGANIZATION REFERENCED:
The Eucharistic Miracles of the World
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Music-Info – A Brighter Dawn is Breaking
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Name: A Brighter Dawn is Breaking
Artist: Richard M.S. Irwin
Hymns for Easter