<P> In Catholicism, the Miracle of Lanciano is a Eucharistic miracle purported to have occurred in the eighth century in the city of Lanciano, Italy . According to tradition, a 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 Catholic Church officially claims the miracle as authentic . </P> <P> The relics of this miracle currently reside in the Church of San Francesco, Lanciano in Corso Roma . </P> <P> The miracle is usually described roughly 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 . Celebrating in the Latin Rite and using unleavened bread, the monk had doubts about the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation . During the Mass, when he said the Words of Consecration ("This is my body . This is my blood"), with doubt in his soul, the priest saw the bread change into living flesh and the wine change into blood which coagulated into five globules, irregular and differing in shape and size . The miracle was supposed to have been contemporaneously investigated and confirmed by the Church, though no documents from this alleged investigation are extant . </P> <P> The specimens which are alleged to have resulted from this miracle are currently kept in a silver ostensorium in the Church of San Francesco, Lanciano, where they are treated as relics and visited by pilgrims . </P>

When did the miracle of lanciano take place