Eucharistic Miracles of Venezuela

Betania, 1991

This Eucharistic miracle took place during the midnight Mass of December 8, 1991, feast of the Immaculate Conception, at the Marian sanctuary of Finca Betania in Cúa, Miranda, Venezuela. Father Otty Ossa Aristizábal, chaplain of the sanctuary, described the event:

Image of the Eucharistic miracle

After breaking the large consecrated Host into four parts, I placed them upon the paten. Moments later I looked down and could scarcely believe my eyes: one of the fragments had developed a bright red spot, from which a red substance began to well up, resembling fresh blood flowing from an open wound. After Mass concluded, I reverently retrieved the Host and preserved it in the sacristy of the sanctuary.
The next morning at six o'clock, I went to inspect the Host and observed that blood was still effusing; shortly thereafter it began to coagulate. Yet even today, the blood appears astonishingly fresh. Most extraordinarily, the blood welled up from only one side of the particle, without soaking or discoloring the rest of the Eucharistic species.

Numerous pilgrims present at Mass verified that the priest had no cuts or bleeding wounds on his hands from which blood could have dripped. Subsequent forensic hematological testing confirmed that the priest's blood type did not match that found on the Host. At the request of the Bishop of Los Teques, Most Reverend Pío Bello Ricardo, the miraculous Host was subjected to rigorous laboratory examinations, which determined that the substance is authentic human blood belonging to the AB positive blood group.

Since that time, the miraculous Host has been venerated by pilgrims from Venezuela and across the world. It is enshrined in the convent of the Augustinian Recollect Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Los Teques, within a chapel dedicated to perpetual Eucharistic adoration.

In 1998, American pilgrim Daniel J. Sanford of New Jersey recorded an astonishing visual phenomenon while praying before the Host. He testified:

On November 12, 1998, I participated in a pilgrimage to Betania with a prayer group, and we were taken to see the miraculous Host in the chapel of the Augustinian Sisters in Los Teques. Our spiritual director, Father Mazzarella, celebrated Holy Mass. After the liturgy, I opened the door of the small tabernacle where the Host was enshrined. To my immense astonishment, the Host appeared to burst into flame, and in its center I beheld a pulsing, bleeding human heart. I watched it for about thirty seconds; then the Host returned to its normal appearance. I succeeded in filming a portion of this extraordinary event on my video camera.

Source

Text and photographs: international exhibition «The Eucharistic Miracles of the World», by Saint Carlo Acutis. Original panel at miracolieucaristici.org.

Betania, 1991

Image of the Eucharistic miracle

After breaking the large consecrated Host into four parts, I placed them upon the paten. Moments later I looked down and could scarcely believe my eyes: one of the fragments had developed a bright red spot, from which a red substance began to well up, resembling fresh blood flowing from an open wound. After Mass concluded, I reverently retrieved the Host and preserved it in the sacristy of the sanctuary.
The next morning at six o'clock, I went to inspect the Host and observed that blood was still effusing; shortly thereafter it began to coagulate. Yet even today, the blood appears astonishingly fresh. Most extraordinarily, the blood welled up from only one side of the particle, without soaking or discoloring the rest of the Eucharistic species.

In 1998, American pilgrim Daniel J. Sanford of New Jersey recorded an astonishing visual phenomenon while praying before the Host. He testified:

On November 12, 1998, I participated in a pilgrimage to Betania with a prayer group, and we were taken to see the miraculous Host in the chapel of the Augustinian Sisters in Los Teques. Our spiritual director, Father Mazzarella, celebrated Holy Mass. After the liturgy, I opened the door of the small tabernacle where the Host was enshrined. To my immense astonishment, the Host appeared to burst into flame, and in its center I beheld a pulsing, bleeding human heart. I watched it for about thirty seconds; then the Host returned to its normal appearance. I succeeded in filming a portion of this extraordinary event on my video camera.