Eucharistic Miracle of Ferrara

The Story

The Basilica of Santa Maria in Vado in Ferrara, in Italy's Emilia-Romagna region, is honored as the Sanctuary of the Prodigious Blood (Santuario del Prodigioso Sangue), preserving the memory of a Eucharistic prodigy that tradition dates to Easter Sunday, March 28, 1171. According to the traditional account, the prior Padre Pietro da Verona was celebrating Easter Mass in the ancient church when, at the moment he broke the consecrated Host, blood sprang from it with such force that it stained the small vault above the altar. Those present witnessed the drops on the ceiling, and Church authorities of the time were informed and examined what had occurred. The bloodstained vault was carefully preserved. When the church was rebuilt on a grander scale at the turn of the sixteenth century, the vault was kept and enclosed within a special shrine in the right transept of the new basilica, where pilgrims may still climb a small stair to see the stains traditionally associated with the miracle. Devotion to the Prodigious Blood has continued in Ferrara for more than eight centuries. The anniversary of the miracle is observed solemnly at the basilica each year in late March, and the church remains a place of Eucharistic adoration and pilgrimage. Like other Eucharistic miracles, Ferrara is understood not as an addition to the faith but as a sign pointing to what the Church believes of every Mass: that under the appearances of bread and wine, Christ himself, Body and Blood, is truly present.

Church Recognition

A recognized devotion of long standing; the bloodstained vault is enshrined in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Vado, today honored as the Sanctuary of the Prodigious Blood, where the anniversary of the 1171 event is solemnly observed.

Catholic Teaching

The tradition points to the Church's faith in the Real Presence: in the breaking of the Host at every Mass, it is Christ himself, whole and entire, who is offered and received (CCC 1373–1377).

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Practical

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The Basilica of Santa Maria in Vado, Ferrara, preserves the site.

Go Deeper

Visit the sanctuary's official website, Santuario del Prodigioso Sangue (https://santuarioprodigiososangue.it), see the Ferrara panel in St. Carlo Acutis's International Exhibition of Eucharistic Miracles, and read the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1373–1381 on the Real Presence.