Eucharistic Miracle of Faverney

The Story

The Eucharistic Miracle of Faverney is associated with the former Benedictine abbey of Faverney in the Franche-Comté region of eastern France, whose abbey church is known today as the Basilica of Notre-Dame de la Blanche. The reported events of Pentecost 1608 unfolded at a time when doubts about the Eucharist were widespread in the region. For the feast of Pentecost the monks had exposed the Blessed Sacrament in a monstrance on a side altar, together with a relic and other furnishings. During the night of May 25–26, 1608, a fire broke out and destroyed the altar and everything around it. When the community entered the church the next morning, witnesses reported that the monstrance was suspended in the air above the burned-out altar, inclined but supported by nothing. According to the contemporary accounts, the monstrance remained suspended for many hours while crowds of religious and townspeople gathered, until it settled onto a fresh corporal during a Mass celebrated the following day. The two Hosts it contained were found intact. An ecclesiastical inquiry was opened almost immediately: the Archbishop of Besançon declared the event authentic on July 10, 1608, after hearing sworn witnesses, and word of the miracle reached Pope Paul V, who granted indulgences to the faithful visiting the church. One of the two Hosts was later given to the city of Dole, where it was lost during the French Revolution; the other is still preserved at Faverney. The surviving Host is venerated in the basilica to this day, and the miracle is commemorated each year at Pentecost. Faverney remains a quiet but enduring witness to Christ's presence in the Blessed Sacrament and to the renewal of Eucharistic faith in a doubting age.

Church Recognition

A recognized devotion investigated shortly after the events of 1608.

Catholic Teaching

A sign of Christ's abiding presence in the Blessed Sacrament.

Plan Your Visit

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Practical

1 Additional Information ▾

The Basilica of Notre-Dame-de-la-Blanche in Faverney commemorates the miracle.

Go Deeper

See the Faverney 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 the Archdiocese of Besançon's resources on the basilica and its annual Pentecost pilgrimage.