Eucharistic miracle of Lanciano

According to tradition, a Basilian monk who had doubts about the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist found, when he said the words of consecration at Mass, that the bread and wine changed into flesh and blood.

The Byzantine emperor Leo III the Isaurian, who reigned from 717 to 741, implemented a strict policy against religious images by promulgating an edict in 730 ordering their destruction.

[3][4] The miracle is described as follows: In the city of Lanciano, Italy, then known as Anxanum, some time in the 700s, a Basilian hieromonk was assigned to celebrate Mass at the monastery of St. Longinus.

The host matter consists of a rounded membrane, yellow-brown in colour, with a shading of greater intensity, and contains a large central hole; it is identified with the flesh.

This supernatural claim had a theological meaning: Each drop of the consecrated wine contained in its entirety the complete and indivisible substance of the blood of Jesus.

[12][13][14] Silvano Fuso, a member of the Italian Committee for the Investigation of Claims of the Pseudosciences, pointed out the strangeness of the fact that there were no sources older than 1574 for an event of the eighth century.