Mogoro

On the Monday after Easter in 1604, in the town of Mogoro on the Italian island of Sardinia, Father Salvatore Spiga was celebrating Mass in the Church of Saint Bernard (San Bernardino). Father Spiga served as the pastor of this parish church, and the Monday after Easter (within the octave of Easter) was a day when many faithful attended Mass to continue their celebration of the Resurrection.

About this miracle

The Mass proceeded normally through the Liturgy of the Word and the Eucharistic Prayer. After Father Spiga spoke the words of consecration over the bread and wine, transforming them into the Body and Blood of Christ, he began distributing Holy Communion to the faithful who had come forward to receive. The congregation was devout, and many parishioners approached the altar rail to receive the Eucharist.

However, unknown to Father Spiga or others present, there were at least two men in the congregation who were in the state of mortal sin - grave sin that had not been confessed and for which they had not received absolution. Despite being in this state of spiritual death, these men presumed to receive Holy Communion, committing an additional grave sacrilege by receiving the Body of Christ unworthily. This was a serious violation of St. Paul's warning in 1 Corinthians 11:27-29 that whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily "will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord."

When these two men received the consecrated Hosts on their tongues and attempted to swallow them, something miraculous occurred. The Hosts fell from their mouths and dropped onto the stone floor of the church. But instead of simply lying on the floor or being damaged, the Hosts miraculously left permanent imprints - impressions of their exact shape and form - on the stone floor itself. The stone, which should have been far too hard to be marked by something as soft as bread, bore the clear impressions of the sacred Hosts, as if the stone had been soft wax when the Hosts touched it.

The miracle was immediately recognized by Father Spiga and the congregation. The two men who had received unworthily, confronted with what they witnessed as proof of the sacredness of what they had profaned and the gravity of their sin, were moved to repentance. The physical miracle served as both a rebuke of sacrilege and an invitation to conversion. The stone bearing the miraculous imprints was carefully preserved as evidence of what had occurred.