Boxmeer

Around the year 1400, in the small Dutch town of Boxmeer, Father Arnoldus Groen was celebrating Holy Mass in what is now the crypt of the Basilica of Saint Peter's Church. This church has a remarkably ancient history, with foundations dating from before the year 1000, making it the oldest parish church in the Country of Cuijk region of the Netherlands. The lower level where Fr. Groen celebrated Mass was built on these ancient foundations. As Father Groen reached the most sacred moment of the Mass—the consecration, when the bread and wine are transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ—he was suddenly assailed by doubt regarding the Real Presence of Jesus in the consecrated Eucharist. This doubt troubled his mind at the very instant he was pronouncing the words of consecration over the chalice. In medieval Eucharistic theology, as taught by St. Thomas Aquinas and other doctors of the Church, such moments of doubt were understood as spiritual attacks that could be answered by God through miraculous signs to strengthen faith.

About this miracle

As Father Arnoldus Groen continued the Mass despite his inner struggle with doubt, something extraordinary began to happen. The species of wine that he had just consecrated began to transform visibly into Blood. The consecrated Blood began bubbling and boiling in the chalice in a supernatural manner, rising up and overflowing the rim of the sacred vessel. The bubbling Blood splashed out of the chalice and onto the corporal—the white linen cloth placed on the altar to catch any fragments of the Host or drops of the Precious Blood. As the Blood continued to bubble forth, it soaked into the corporal, creating a permanent stain. Father Groen, witnessing this terrifying manifestation and recognizing it as a divine response to his doubt, was overcome with remorse. He immediately cried out to God, begging forgiveness for his lack of faith and his presumption in doubting Christ's promise to be truly present in the Eucharist. As soon as the priest expressed his repentance and asked for divine mercy, the Blood stopped bubbling and overflowing from the chalice. The miraculous intervention ceased as suddenly as it had begun, leaving the corporal stained with Blood that had coagulated into a lump approximately one centimeter in diameter—about the size of a walnut, as contemporary accounts describe it.

The miraculous Blood and the Blood-stained corporal were immediately recognized as sacred relics and were retained for veneration by the faithful. The Church authorities investigated the miracle and authorized the preservation and display of these relics. In 1482, eighty-two years after the original miracle, the relic of the coagulated Blood and the corporal were placed in a specially-crafted cylindrical reliquary to better preserve and display them. This reliquary became an object of great veneration, attracting pilgrims from throughout the Netherlands and beyond. In 1650, a new, more elaborate container was commissioned and created to hold the 1482 reliquary, providing an additional layer of protection and honor for these precious relics. These nested reliquaries—the inner cylindrical container from 1482 within the outer container from 1650—have preserved the miraculous Blood for over 600 years.