Eucharistic Miracle of Guadalupe (Spain)

The Story

The Royal Monastery of Santa María de Guadalupe, in the Extremadura region of western Spain, is one of the great shrines of the Spanish-speaking world, home to the venerated image of Our Lady of Guadalupe and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Within its walls, tradition also preserves the memory of a Eucharistic miracle associated with the year 1420. According to the account handed down in the monastery, Fray Pedro de Cabañuelas, a monk of the Hieronymite community that then served Guadalupe, struggled with doubts about the mystery of transubstantiation. While he was celebrating Mass, the traditional account relates that the consecrated Host was seen raised above the chalice and that drops of blood fell from it onto the altar cloths, dispelling the priest's doubt. Tradition adds that the experience transformed Fray Pedro, who was later entrusted with leadership in the community and remembered for his holiness. The cloths associated with the event were preserved at the monastery, and the account strengthened the Eucharistic devotion of the many pilgrims, among them Spanish royalty, who came to Guadalupe in the fifteenth century. Guadalupe itself flourished as a center of Marian pilgrimage, art and learning. The Hieronymites served the shrine until the nineteenth century; since 1908 it has been in the care of the Franciscans, and in 1955 Pope Pius XII granted its church the title of minor basilica. For pilgrims today, the miracle tradition of 1420 joins the two loves at the heart of the shrine: devotion to the Mother of God and adoration of her Son truly present in the Eucharist.

Church Recognition

A devotion preserved within one of Spain's most honored shrines: the Royal Monastery of Guadalupe, whose church Pope Pius XII named a minor basilica in 1955, has handed down the account of the 1420 miracle for six centuries.

Catholic Teaching

The tradition addresses doubt about transubstantiation — the Church's teaching that the whole substance of the bread and wine becomes Christ's Body and Blood (CCC 1376) — and shows how the Lord meets wavering faith with mercy.

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Practical

1 Additional Information ▾

The Royal Monastery of Guadalupe (a UNESCO site) is a major Spanish Marian and Eucharistic pilgrimage.

Go Deeper

Visit the official website of the Real Monasterio de Santa María de Guadalupe (https://monasterioguadalupe.es), see the Guadalupe 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.