Saturday, November 13, 2010

Eucharistic Miracle of Bergen, Netherlands 1421


Bergen op Zoom (City on the Border), is located along the estuary of the Schelda River and has many canals running across it. In 1421, on the Sunday before the Feast of Pentecost, the pastor of the Church of Saints Peter and Paul, not believing the truth of the transubstantiation, threw consecrated Hosts left over from Mass into the canal.


Several months later, some fisherman found the Hosts floating in the water and soaked in coagulated Blood. News of the miraculous recovery of the Hosts spread quickly, and immediately many pilgrims came to see. Devotion was approved by the bishop and, though it was banned for a long period during the Protestant Reformation, Catholics silently continued to keep alive the memory of the miracle.  Devotion was restored in the twentieth century and there are numerous public events to commemorate the miracle.

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