A host came to her: 11-year-old Imelda received Communion and died in ecstasy

Imelda showed remarkable spiritual fervor and maturity from an early age. In particular, she was saddened every day by the fact that she had to wait until the age of fourteen to receive Holy Communion. During mass on May 12, 1333, which the eleven-year-old attended as usual, a consecrated host rose and came to her, indicating to the priest that he could give her communion. The priest then gave communion to Imelda, who, a few moments later, died peacefully as her face glowed with a supernatural light. This well-documented miracle, duly recognized by the Catholic Church, is inseparable from the personality of Imelda, herself proclaimed blessed by the same magisterium.

Reasons to believe:

The miracle was approved after a canonical investigation.
The story was recorded in writing soon after the event: the records are fully authenticated and date back to 1333. The documents attesting to the event are unanimously known by Imelda's religious family, ecclesiastical authorities and historians alike.
The account of the miracle cannot be the invention of Imelda, the nuns or the priest. As Imelda died immediately afterwards, the nuns and the priest celebrating mass had no interest in lying. All accounts of the event mention the general surprise of those present in the church.
The Dominican nuns of the 14th century had no taste for the miraculous: nowhere is there any trace of a similar story in this part of Italy at that time. What's more, the Middle Ages did not place great importance on childhood - even in religious circles: why should the nuns of Bologna have made an exception?
It wasn't a miracle that led the Church to proclaim Imelda blessed, since it was an "equipollent" type of beatification, i.e. an exceptional process that dispenses with the need for miracles.
Her body has remained incorrupt for centuries. Today, it can be seen in San Sigismondo church in Bologna (Italy).

Summary:

Imelda, born as Maria Magdalena Lambertini, was born in 1321 into a noble family from Bologna (Emilia-Romagna, Italy). Because of her social status, her parents began thinking about their daughter's future marriage at an early age, as was customary.

The girl received an education befitting her rank, and developed a taste for learning. Above all, she enjoyed reading the Bible and praying: this was hardly surprising, since her family shared a strong faith, and children's upbringing at the time was imbued with religious instruction.

Imelda's spiritual and psychological maturity, both precocious and rare, was evident to those around her. She expressed a twofold desire: to place her life under God's gaze, and to receive the Blessed Sacrament as soon as possible. The little girl knew that she would not be able to receive Holy Communion until the age of fourteen, as was authorized by the Church at the time. Inwardly, this waiting time was unbearable for her. This is a clear indication of Imelda's rich mystical life.

At the age of ten, and after many setbacks - her parents had repeatedly opposed her religious vocation - she was admitted to the Dominican novitiate at the convent of Santa Maria Magdalena in Bologna, which her family attended and supported. She became Sister Imelda.

At the convent, her life was similar to that of all other religious. People noticed her devotion, respect for rules, a taste for contemplation, and long, silent prayers before the tabernacle. She wasn't known to have any "extraordinary" experiences. Her sisters in religion realized that Imelda's desire for communion was ever-increasing. It was not just about physically receiving this sacrament, but about participating, through it, in the Trinitarian life revealed by Christ and proclaimed by the Church.

On May 12, 1333, as the bell announced mass as usual, she went into the chapel accompanied by the community's youngest sisters. She wept: her confessor had once again forbidden her to receive communion because of her age! She was eleven at the time. As always, she showed self-sacrifice and prayed with contagious faith.

At the moment of communion, while the adult sisters were kneeling at the communion rail behind the choir screen, a host "rose from the ciborium", some two meters above the ground, and headed towards Imelda, who had noticed the beginning of the miracle. The host crossed the distance separating the priest and her - a few meters - in a fraction of a second, then stopped precisely "above the head" of the blessed child. The nuns and the celebrant saw it too. The priest stood petrified, the witnesses would say later.

After a moment, he regained his composure and walked over to Imelda, holding the paten in his hands. The host, still floating in the air, came to rest on its own in the paten. The priest then gave Imelda communion. The girl bowed, closed her eyes and began to pray. She seemed lost in adoration for a long time, and not responding to the nuns...was it a rapture or a fainting episode? After the sisters had checked on her and tried to make her stand up, Imelda fell to the floor in a state of ecstasy, her face aglow with a prodigious light and her features expressing ineffable joy. She had just died.

Imelda was later named the "Flower of the Eucharist", for her love of the Blessed Sacrament. Her body was buried in the convent crypt in a marble tomb. The community obtained permission to sign a special liturgical antiphon in her honor.

The nuns observed the abnormal state of preservation of her body hours after death: elasticity of the skin, suppleness of the limbs, eyes identical to those of a living person... In 1582, the Dominican nuns moved inside the city of Bologna and obtained permission from the archbishop to transport Imelda's relics with them (today in the church of San Sigismondo).

Pope Leo XII beatified Imelda in 1826. Since 1333, the memory of the events has been handed down both within the Dominican Order and among the Italian clergy. In 1908, Pius X declared Imelda patron saint of First Communicants. On August 8, 1910, a papal decree (Quam Singulari) ruled that children aged seven could be admitted to First Communion.

Patrick Sbalchiero

Beyond reasons to believe:

Imelda illustrates the yearning for communion that comes from full awareness of the treasure of this sacrament. "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him" (Jn 6:56). Every time we receive the Eucharist with faith, we become more like Jesus.