The miracle is usually described roughly as follows: In the city of Lanciano, Italy, then known as Anxanum, some time in the 700s, a Basilian hieromonk was assigned to celebrate Mass at the monastery of St. Longinus.
The specimens which are alleged to have resulted from this miracle are currently kept in a silver ostensorium in the Church of San Francesco, Lanciano, where they are treated as relics and visited by pilgrims.