Saint Carlo Acutis spent his final years documenting Eucharistic miracles from around the world. Here are some of the most famous ones he catalogued in his exhibition.
Convinced that the Eucharist was, in his words, his "highway to heaven", Carlo wanted to help others believe in the real presence of Jesus. So he researched Eucharistic miracles recognised by the Church and gathered them into a website and a set of exhibition panels. That travelling exhibition has since been shown in thousands of parishes on every continent.
The miracles below are among the best known he documented. For the wider story of the project, see our page on the Eucharistic miracles exhibition.
The oldest and best known Eucharistic miracle. During Mass, a doubting monk saw the host turn into flesh and the wine into blood. The relics are still preserved, and 20th-century scientific studies reported the flesh to be heart tissue and the blood to be human.
A priest troubled by doubts saw the host bleed onto the corporal (altar cloth) during Mass at Bolsena. The stained corporal is kept in Orvieto Cathedral, and the miracle helped lead to the institution of the feast of Corpus Christi.
A consecrated host began to bleed after being taken from Mass. It is venerated to this day in the Church of St Stephen (the Church of the Holy Miracle) in Santarém.
Consecrated hosts were stolen from a church and later recovered. Remarkably, they have remained intact and unspoiled for centuries, defying the natural process of decay, and are still preserved in Siena.
A host that had been cast into a fire was found intact among the flames. The event gave rise to the Miracle of Amsterdam and the tradition of the Stille Omgang, a silent procession still held each year.
A discarded host turned into a bleeding fragment of tissue. Investigated during the years when the future Pope Francis served as archbishop, laboratory analysis reported the sample to be inflamed heart muscle tissue.
During a parish retreat, a host was seen to exude a reddish substance. A lengthy investigation followed, and studies reported the substance to be consistent with human blood.
A priest carelessly placed a consecrated host in his breviary to bring to a sick person. When he opened the book, the page was stained with blood in the shape of the host. The relic is honoured in Cascia.
A note on the Church and miracles: the Catholic Church investigates reported miracles carefully and does not require anyone to believe in private miracles as a matter of faith. What all these events point to is the constant teaching of the Church that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist, the truth Carlo gave his short life to sharing.