Catholic Eucharistic Miracle Exhibition in Colombo First Time in a South Asian Country

Anton Abeysekara

Devotees from far and near throng in Colombo to pay the Sublime Homoge to the Eucharistic Lord.

The Exhibition of Catholic Eucharistic Miracles was held at St Lucia.s Cathedral, Kotahena, Coloimbo on March 1st declared opened by Rt.Rev.Dr. Emmaneule Fernando, the Auxiliary Bishop of Colombo.This is the first time Catholic Church approved Holy Eucharist Miracles held in Sri Lanka with in the Soutrh Asian Region. Large crowds from far and near gather to pay the sublime homage to the Eucharist Lord

The Exhibits provide comprehensive information in all three languages English, Sinhalese and Tamil and all the important images depicting the Miracles, the Locations,and other incidents of interest will be presented on Display Boards. The objective behind the holding of the Exhibition is to increase the faith of the devotees into the Holy Eucharist. Plans are also afoot to hold this exchibition in as many Parishes and Shrines in Sri Lanka.

An inscription in marble from the 17th century decribes an Eucharistic Miracle which occurred at Lanciano,a Town in Italy in the year 750, at the Church of St Francis.”A Monastic Priest doubted whether the body of our Lord was truly present in the consecrated host. He celebrated Mass and when he said the words of consecration, he saw the host turn into flesh and the wine into Blood. Everything was visible to those in attendance.

The Flesh is still intact and the Blood is divided into five unequal parts which together have the exact same weight as each one does separately.”In 1970,the Archbishop of Lanciano and the Provincial Superior of the Conventual Franciscans in Abruzzio with Rome’s approval, requested Dr.Edward Linoli, Director of the Hospital in Arezzo and Professor of Anatomy,Histology,Chemistry,and Clinical Microscopy,to perform a thorough scientific examination on the relics of the miracle, which had occurred twelve centuries earlier.On March 4,1971,the Professor presented a detailed report of the various studies carried out and here are the results.

1) The miraculous Flesh is authentic flesh consisting of muscular striated tissue of the myocardium, which is tissue from the heart. 2)The Miraculous Blood is truly Blood and the Chromatographic analysis indicated this with absolute and indisputable certainty.

3) The immunological study shows with certitude that the flesh and the blood are human and the immune-hermatological test allows us to affirm with complete objectivity and certitude that both belong to the same blood group AB-the same blood type as that of the man of the Shroud and the type characteristic of Middle Eastern population.

4) The proteins contained in the Blood have the normal distribution in the identical percentage as that of the serous-proteic chart for normal fresh blood.

5) No histological dissection has revealed any trace of salt infiltration or preservative substances used in antiquity for the purpose of embalming. Professor Linoli also discarded the hypothesis of a hoax carried out in past centuries. This report is published in” The Sclavo Notebooks in Diagonistics in 1971 and aroused great interest in the scientific World.

Further, in 1973 the Chief Advisory Board of the World Health Organisation appointed a scientific commission to investigate the Linoli Report and they conducted 500 tests for 15 months. They confirmed that the fragments taken from Lanciano could in no way be likened to embalmed tissue. As to the nature of the fragment of flesh the commission declared it to be living tissue because it responded rapidly to all the clinical reactions distinctive of living beings.

This fully colloborated the findings of Professor Linoli. The World Health Organization summarising the work of the Medical Commission, declared in 1976 that Science aware of its limits has come to a halt, face to face with the impossibility of giving an explanation.

Teresa Neumann’s was born in 1898 to an extremely poor family.Her life changed radically after her miraculous recovery from paralysis and total blindness, at the age of 25.A few years later she had the Stigmata and began the fast which lasted for 36 years until her death. Her only nourishment was the Holy Eucharist, and for this reason the Nazi Authorities during World War 11 withdrew her food ration and gave her a double ration of soap to wash her laundry, because every Friday she was drenched in blood while in ecstasy experiencing the passion of Christ.

These are only two of the 126 Miracles which will be described and illustrations, displayed at the Exhibition which will be held in Sri Lanka.

Let us first look at the Origin and the History of the Exhibition which had been held previously in Italy, U.S.A. and in the Philippines. Our beloved Late Pope John Paul 11 was concerned with the trend the World was taking towards Materialism and Secularisation. A year before his death, the final major document of Pope John Paul’s Pontificate presented the program of New Evangelisation in the encyclical letter, Ecclesia De Eucharistica, which means, “The Church of the Eucharist”. In this encyclical Pope John Paul explains that the goal of the program is “To rekindle our glowing wonder before the Holy Eucharist, the great Mystery of Faith”

To assist us, the faithful of the Church, and for the purpose of reawakening and deepening of our faith and love of the Eucharist, the Pontifical, Acadamy in the Vatican undertook a project and made a Global study of all Eucharistic Miracles that has taken place all over the World. They collected all the evidence available including Medical and Scientific details and following thorough investigation, approved 126 Miracles. The Acadamy held the first Exhibition in Milan, Rome in 2004, which was declared “THE YEAR OF THE EUCHARIST”by His Holiness Pope John Paul 11, which incidentally was the final year of his Pontificate, as the Vicar of Christ. Thereafter the Exhibition was held in several Parishes in Italy. Following the success of this exhibition, the Real Presence Eucharistic Education and Adoration Association was formed in the United States and in close conjunction with the Pontifical Acadamy, the Vatican Eucharistic Miracles of the World Exhibition was held in the United States in several Parishes. We have worked very closely with this Association and they have provided us with all the Material for this Exhibition. The Pontifical Acadamy in the Vatican has also extended their support and Blessings to us.

It is no longer necessary to go to the Vatican or the U.S.to view this exhibition as we are having it in Sri Lanka this year, which has been declared by Pope Benedict XVI as the Year of Faith. We will call it The Catholic Eucharistic Miracles of The World Exhibition”.

New church building

Maha Galgamuwa St Anthony's Church completes 145 years this year. A new church building is nearing completion and Rev.Fr. Newman Muthuthambi OMI said that he needs more donations to complete the work before the feast due in June this year.

Fr.Muthuthambi also referred to the bad state of the road leading to the Church via Blessed Jusevas pura and expressed his confidence that the State might take steps to build up a better road for the pilgrims to come. it is about five kilo meters from the town and the road leading to the church passing the Blessed Joseph Vaz Shrine is in a bad state.

While soliciting the generous support of the devotees of St Anthony he said now there is a Pilgrim Rest set up with the funds received from the state at the Joseph Vaz Shrine and those willing to spend some days there could contact him direct dialing 037-2253095 . Your generous donations could also be sent to Rev.Fr. Newman Muthuthambi OMI, Parish Priest, St. Benedict Church, Galgamuwa.