Buenos Aires miraculous host sent to forensic lab, found to be heart muscle (1996)

A "supernatural" event involving the unexplained and dramatic change in the chemical and physical profile of the "bread" to "human tissue" in a consecrated host is known as a "Eucharistic miracle". On August 15, 1996, during the Mass of the Assumption of the Most Holy Virgin, a consecrated Host, which fell to the ground during the distribution of Communion, had to be placed in a vessel of water so it would dissolve. A few days later, on August 26, a Eucharistic minister opened the tabernacle and saw that the host had transformed into blood. Three years later, the host was scientifically analysed. The results of the scientific examinations were astounding: human DNA, muscle tissue, intact white blood cells, etc. All the elements associated with the Passion of Christ were present. This miracle is material proof of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

Unsplash / Thays Orrico

Reasons to believe:

The Eucharistic miracle of Buenos Aires is one of the best scientifically attested miracles, both in terms of the top-level scientists involved, number of tests, number of findings, and finding that confirm the story of Christ's passion and Catholic belief about what the Eucharist is:

The host fragment was found to be living tissue even after been placed in distilled water for three years. This is normally impossible, as distilled water is known to be incompatible with the maintenance of cellular life. As cardiologist Franco Serafini puts it: "These samples came from tissue preserved in water without any nutrients. Distilled water alone is in fact incompatible with life for osmotic reasons, but the white blood cells were very much alive when the sample was taken, even through the sample had been left for three years in these conditions" (Franco Serafini, A Cardiologist Examines Jesus: The Stunning Science Behind Eucharistic Miracles, Sophia Institute Press (November 22, 2021).

On March 2, 2004, samples were brought to New York for analysis by Dr. Frederic Zugibe, a famous cardiologist and forensic pathologist at Columbia University with 35 years experience. Zugibe was not told what the sample was. He found that the sample was heart muscle near the left ventricle. It was inflamed and had white blood cells, meaning the heart was alive and pumping when the sample was taken. The heart showed signs of being under severe stress. When told that the sample came from a consecrated Host, Zugibe was speechless.

On April 20, 2004, Ricardo Castañon Gómez of Bolivia, a clinical psychologist who specializes in brain chemistry, lawyer Ron Tesoriero and journalist Mike Willesee were in Dr Zugibe's office in New York. Dr Lawrence, a top histopathologist, who studies tissues, prepared the sample on a microscope slide and asked Zugibe to analyze it. Their meeting was filmed by Tesoriero holding the camera, with Willesee interviewing. Zugibe concluded on camera that it is "muscle tissue from the heart, from the left ventricle". He looked again and said: "This heart muscle is inflamed; it has lost its striations and is now infiltrated with leukocytes." He concluded that the person in question must have been under severe stress.

Tesoriero, Willsesee and Dr Ricardo Castañon Gomez shuddered at hearing his observations, as leucocytes can normally only be found in a living organism. Zugibe says: "When you gave me the sample, it was alive!" Willesee then thought of asking: "How long would these leukocytes have survived if the sample had been put in water?" Zugibe replied, " They would have dissolved in a few minutes and no longer exist."

At this point, the two Australians revealed to Dr Zugibe that the piece he had just analyzed had been kept in distilled water for three years, and that the sample came from a consecrated host. The doctor was stunned: "Absolutely incredible! Science can't explain it!"

Summary:

It all began on August 15, 1996, following a mass celebrated by Father Alejandro Pezet. A member of the faithful informed the priest that a consecrated host had been found at the back of the church in a candle holder. Father Pezet went to retrieve the host, which was dirty, and put it in a container of holy water, in the tabernacle.

After more than a week, on August 26, the priest found that it had not dissolved, but had a few reddish spots. These stains became larger every day afterwards. He then informed his bishop, Archbishop Bergoglio (the future Pope Francis), who asked that the host be photographed. Photographer Marcello Antonini took the photos on August 26 and September 6. After waiting about a month, the host was placed in distilled water, where it remained for three whole years.

In July 1999, Archbishop Bergoglio finally decided to send the piece of Eucharist for scientific analysis. On September 28, Dr Castañon Gomez, an atheist (at the time) and an expert in biochemistry and neuropsychophysiology, began his research.

Here is Dr Ricardo Castañon Gomez's account:

"On October 6, 1999, I traveled to Buenos Aires and interviewed the five priests who had witnessed the event [...] They had put it in distilled water, the worst way of preserving something, which concerned me greatly [ ...] For my part, I took a sample of the two hosts that had bled, in the presence of the archiepiscopal notary [Note: Dr Gomez mentions two hosts because, in addition to the 1996 host, he analyzed another host from a different case that took place in 1992].On October 21, 1999, I went to the forensic laboratory that was to analyze the samples I had brought with me. On January 28, 2000, the specialists found fragments of human DNA in the samples. It was human blood containing a human genetic code.

In March 2000, I was informed that the famous Dr Robert Lawrence, one of the world's leading forensic histopathologists and experts in tissue analysis, had taken part in the study. The scientists explained to me that they had requested his collaboration. Dr Lawrence studied the samples, in which he found human skin and white blood cells.

In 2001, I went to see Professor Linoli, who identified the white blood cells and told me that, most probably, the samples corresponded to heart tissue. The results obtained from the samples were similar to those from the studies carried out on the host from the Lanciano miracle.

In 2002, we sent the sample to Professor John Walker at the University of Sydney, Australia, who confirmed that the samples contained intact muscle cells and white blood cells, which normally disintegrate after fifteen minutes outside the body.

In September 2003, Professor Robert Lawrence confirmed to me that, in the light of the new investigations, we could conclude that the sample corresponded to the tissue of an inflamed heart, which meant that the person to whom it belonged must have suffered a great deal .

On March 2, 2004, in order to remove any doubt, we called on the leading expert in cardiac pathology and forensic medicine, Professor Frederick Zugibe, from Columbia University, New York. Professor Zugibe had no idea that the sample I was bringing him had come from a consecrated host. After studying it, he said to me: "The sample you brought me is a heart muscle, a myocardium, more precisely the left ventricle." And he confirmed that my patient had suffered enormously. So I asked him: "Why do you say that? - Because your patient has a few thrombi, which at certain times prevent breathing and oxygen supply, making the patient tired and in pain, as each aspiration must have been painful. He was probably the victim of a blow to the chest. In addition, cardiac activity was brisk when you brought me the sample. We found intact white blood cells and these are only carried by the blood. So, if there are white blood cells, it's because when you brought me the sample, it was beating.

The professor then asked me whose sample it was and, when we told him it came from a consecrated host, he exclaimed, "I can't believe it!" He was very impressed. "Doctor, when you brought me that sample, that heart was alive!" His report was sent on March 26, 2005, five and a half years after the studies began, and the conclusions were as follows: "This is heart tissue: there are degenerative changes in the myocardium, which are due to the fact that the cells are inflamed; this concerns the left ventricle of the heart."

These rigorous scientific analyses are fascinating. Here we find all the elements present during to the passion of Christ: a beating heart, a person who suffered greatly, etc. In fact, the scientific report gives material proof of the truth of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Imagining a widespread conspiracy is an unsatisfactory hypothesis, given the various elements observed by numerous independent scientists (most of them non-Catholics) over several years of rigorous testing.

Following this astonishing miracle, Dr Ricardo Castañon Gomez (previously an atheist) converted to Catholicism.

Matthieu Lavagna, author of Soyez rationnel, devenez catholique!

Beyond reasons to believe:

Eucharistic miracles make us realize just how realand tangible Christ's actual and eternal sacrifice on our behalf is; that transubstantiation is not just a word; that Christ's passion is not a myth or legend from 2,000 years ago, but something that took place and continues to take place. Science can now corroborate this truth.

The words of Christ, who claims to be present in the Eucharist, are indeed true: "I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate manna in the desert and died; but the bread that comes down from heaven is such that whoever eats it will not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven: if anyone eats of this bread, he will live for ever.The bread that I will give is my flesh, given for the life of the world [...] Amen, amen, I say to you: unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him." (John 6:48-54).