By Zelda Caldwell/CNA
A local Connecticut television station is reporting that the Archdiocese of Hartford is investigating a possible Eucharistic miracle that may have taken place during the celebration of Mass at St. Thomas Catholic Church in Thomaston.
Blessed Father Michael McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus, served as pastor of St. Thomas Church from 1884 until his death at age of 38, on the eve of the Assumption, in 1890.
On March 5, at the conclusion of Mass, Father Joseph Crowley announced that a Eucharistic minister witnessed something unexplainable as he was distributing Communion.
“One of our Eucharistic ministers was running out of Hosts and, suddenly, there were more Hosts in the ciborium. God just duplicated himself in the ciborium,” an emotional Father Crowley told the faithful.
“It’s really, really cool when God does these things, and it’s really, really cool when we realize what he’s done, and it just happened today,” the priest said.
“Very powerful, very awesome, very real, very shocking. But also, it happens, and today it happened,” he said.
“They were running out of Hosts, and, all of a sudden, more Hosts were there. So today, not only did we have the miracle of the Eucharist, we also had a bigger miracle. It’s pretty cool,” the priest said.
Watch Father Crowley describe the possible miracle in the video below:
WFSB Eyewitness News reported Friday that “the Archdiocese of Hartford is looking into this possible miracle.”
A Vatican-endorsed exhibit, “Eucharistic Miracles of the World,” featuring documentary evidence of 152 such miracles, has visited more than 3,000 churches on its international tour. In the 21st century, there have been four Eucharistic miracles recognized by the Catholic Church, the Jesuit Magis Center reports.
In 2013, in a church in Legnica, Poland, a consecrated Host that fell to the floor was put into water so that it would dissolve. Instead, it became streaked with red stains. Forensic testing concluded, “In the histopathological image, the fragments were found containing the fragmented parts of the cross-striated muscle. It is most similar to the heart muscle.”
In 2006, a consecrated Host at a parish in the Chilpancingo-Chilapa Diocese of Mexico appeared to be bleeding. Tests later found the presence of blood. “The reddish substance analyzed corresponds to blood in which there are hemoglobin and DNA of human origin,” the study found.
In 2001, witnesses reported seeing the face of Jesus appear on a consecrated Host in Chirattakonam, India.
And, in 2008, at a church in Sokolka, Poland, a priest dropped a consecrated Host which then appeared to bleed. Tests later found that “the altered fragment of the Host is identical to the myocardial [heart] tissue of a person who is nearing death. Additionally, the structure of the muscle fibers and that of the bread are interwoven in a way impossible to produce by human means.”
National Catholic Register staff added to this report.