Eucharistic Miracle of Daroca

The Story

The Basilica of Santa María de los Sagrados Corporales in Daroca, in Spain's Aragón region, preserves the Sacred Corporals — altar cloths stained in a Eucharistic prodigy that tradition dates to 1239, during the Christian reconquest of the Valencia region. According to the traditional account, a chaplain named Mateo Martínez of Daroca celebrated Mass for the Christian captains before an assault on the castle of Chio, near Luchente. He had consecrated six Hosts for the six commanders when a sudden attack forced him to interrupt the Mass and hide the Hosts, wrapped in the corporal, among nearby rocks. When the fighting ended and the corporal was recovered, the Hosts were reportedly found stained with blood and adhering to the cloth. The captains, who came from different cities, each wished to bring the corporals home. Tradition holds that the matter was entrusted to Providence: the corporals were placed on a mule, which was left to wander where it would. After a journey of many days the animal fell at the gates of Daroca in March 1239, and the corporals have remained in the town ever since. The reported prodigy became one of medieval Spain's most celebrated Eucharistic devotions, arising in the same generation in which the universal feast of Corpus Christi was established in 1264. The corporals are kept in the collegiate Basilica of Santa María, where a chapel and reliquary were built to house them, and they are honored publicly during Daroca's Corpus Christi celebrations. For pilgrims, Daroca speaks of Christ's abiding presence in the Blessed Sacrament even amid the violence and uncertainty of human history, and of the reverence owed to the Eucharist in every circumstance.

Church Recognition

A recognized devotion venerated for nearly eight centuries; the Sacred Corporals are enshrined in the collegiate Basilica of Santa María de los Sagrados Corporales in Daroca and honored publicly at Corpus Christi.

Catholic Teaching

Catholic teaching holds that Christ remains truly present in the consecrated species as long as they subsist (CCC 1377); the Daroca tradition calls the faithful to reverence for the reserved Sacrament and to trust in Christ's presence amid trial.

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1 Additional Information ▾

The Colegiata de Santa Maria in Daroca preserves the Sacred Corporals.

Go Deeper

See the Daroca panel in St. Carlo Acutis's International Exhibition of Eucharistic Miracles (miracolieucaristici.org), the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1373–1381 on the Real Presence, and Aragón's official heritage resources on the Basilica of the Sagrados Corporales.