As of 2012, the relics of this miracle were kept in the Church of St. Francis in Lanciano. In 2004, Pope John Paul II recalled visiting the relics there while a cardinal. They are displayed in a silver and glass reliquary made in Naples in 1713. The "host" matter consists of a rounded membrane, yellow-brown in colour, with a shading of greater intensity, and contains a large central hole; it is identified with the flesh. The "wine" matter comes in the form of five earthy brown lumps of different shapes and sizes, claimed to be the coagulated blood. Over the centuries the relics were examined several times. During the first reconnaissance, carried out in 1574 by Archbishop Gaspare Rodriguez, it was said that the weight of each blood clot was equal to the total weight of the five clots. This alleged finding was interpreted theologically: Each drop of the consecrated wine contained in its entirety the complete and indivisible substance of the blood of Jesus. This finding could not be replicated in later investigations. In November 1970, at the request of the Archbishop of Lanciano, Pacifico Maria Luigi Perantoni, and the Provincial Superior of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual of the Abruzzo region, Bruno Luciani, the Franciscan friars of Lanciano, who guarded the relics, decided, with the authorization of the Vatican, to have them subjected to medical-scientific analysis. The task was entrusted to Odoardo Linoli, head of the laboratory of clinical analysis and pathological anatomy of the hospital of Arezzo - full professor of anatomy, histology, chemistry, and clinical microscopy - and to Ruggero Bertelli, professor of anatomy at the University of Siena. The examination revealed that the relics were human heart muscle tissue Silvano Fuso, a member of the Italian Committee for the Investigation of Claims of the Pseudosciences, pointed out the strangeness of the fact that there were no sources older than 1574 for an event of the eighth century. References External links Santuario del Miracolo Eucharistico 8th-century Christianity 8th century in Italy Eucharist Christian miracles Medieval Abruzzo Lanciano