Legendary ex - Marine Air Wing Marine Tim Staples!

Snippets from his rock'em sock'em article in Catholic Answers Magazine, May - June 2012:

Eucharistic Miracles..

 "Around AD 700 at the monastery of St. Longinus in Lanciano, Italy,  a priest - monk whose name is unknown to us today was celebrating the Holy Eucharist.

"He had been struggling with his faith in the Real Presence when Our Lord granted to this priest and to the world a miracle that even to this day continues to be visible proof the truth of the Eucharist.

"Shortly after the consecration -- after the bread and wine offered had been transubstantiated into the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ -- the accidents of bread and wine he was holding in his hands  were transformed  into real human flesh and real human blood.

"[P]erhaps the most thorough of examinations [of this miracle] took place in 1970 under the expert scrutiny of Odoardo Linoli, head physician of the united hospitals  of Arezzo, Italy, and Dr. Ruggero Bertelli, professor emeritus of human anatomy at the University of Siena. The findings of their study were incontrovertible:

"The flesh was the muscular tissue from the myocardium of a human heart. 


"The blood tested from both the flesh and coagulated blood was AB positive and human in origin.


"The proteins in the coagulated blood were found to be normally fractionated with the same percentage ratio as those found in normal fresh blood.  In other words, this blood was not later planted from a cadaver; it came from a living body and maintained properties of fresh blood.


"Though the receptacle containing the miracles were not hermetically sealed, nor did they have any detectable presence of agents, the flesh and blood  had been preserved for well over 1,700 years.


"Today tens of thousands of annual pilgrims visit Lanciano, where the Eucharistic miracle is preserved, to view the flesh, which maintains a pinkish hue, blood vessels remaining visible as a sign of the truth of the Real Presence of Christ in the sacrament ..."


Contrast this story -- of a monk - priest celebrating the Eucharist most likely alone or nearly so -- with what we've heard from at least one ordained permanent deacon here in Brackettville, Texas 78832:

That the number of persons present in the Saint Mary Magdalene Church determines whether Father Pius or even Archbishop Gustavo can successfully consecrate the bread and wine! :)