TURIN

ITALY, 1453

Eucharistic Miracle of

Inside the Corpus Domini

Basilica in Turin, there is an

iron railing that closes in the

place where it came true the

first Eucharistic miracle that

happened in Turin in 1453.

An inscription inside the

railing describes the miracle:

“Here the she-mule, that was

carrying the Divine Body, fell

prostrate - here the Sacred

Host, having freed Itself from

the bag that was imprisoning

It, rose by Itself high - here

clement came down among

the suppliant hands of the

Torineses - here then the place

made holy by the miracle -

remembering it, praying on

your knees let it move you to

venerate or to be in fear

(June 6, 1453)”.

n the Alta Val Susa, close to Exilles, the army

of René D'Angiò met the army of the duke

Ludovic of Savoy. Here the soldiers indulged

in plundering the town and some of them entered

the church. One of them, forced open the taberna-

cle’s little door and stole the monstrance with the

consecrated Host. He wrapped up all that he had

stolen in a bag and on a mule he headed for Turin.

On the main plaza, close to St. Sylvester’s church,

now the Holy Spirit church, where later the

Church of Corpus Domini was built; the she-mule

stumbled and fell. Then suddenly the bag opened

and the monstrance with the consecrated Host rose

over the surrounding houses while the people were

filled with wonder. Among those present there was

also Don Bartholomew Coccolo. He ran with this

news to the Bishop, Ludovic of the Romagnano’s

Marquises. The Bishop, accompanied by a cortege of

people and clergy, went to the plaza, prostrated

himself in adoration and prayed with the words

of the Emmaus disciples, “Stay with us, Lord”.

Meanwhile a new miracle had happened; the

monstrance had fallen on the ground, had let the

consecrated Host free and shining, as a second

sun. The Bishop who was holding a

chalice in his hands, lifted it up high, and the

consecrated Host slowly started coming down

and landing in the chalice.

The devotion for the miracle

of 1453 was at once adopted by the town that

first promoted the building of an aedicule on the

place of the Miracle, and then soon substituted

by the church dedicated to the Corpus Domini.

But the most significant display of this is ex-

pressed by the celebrations organized in occasion

of the centenaries and fiftieth anniversaries (1653,

1703, 1853, and partially 1803). The documents

that describe the miracles are many. The most

ancient are the three Capitulary Acts of 1454,

1455 and 1456, and some writings contemporary

of the Turin Municipality. In 1853 the Blessed Pope

Pius IX solemnly celebrated the fourth centenary

of the miracle. In this celebration Saint John Bosco

and Don Rua participated. Furthermore, Pius IX on

this occasion approved the Office and the Mass Proper

of the miracle for the Turin archdiocese. In 1928

Pius XI raised the Church of Corpus Domini to

the dignity of minor basilica. The Host of the

miracle was kept till the XV century when the

Holy See gave order to consume

it, “to not oblige

God to make the miracle an eternal

miracle by

keeping always incorrupt, as they had being doing,

those very same Eucharistic species”.

In entering the Basilica of Corpus Domini in Turin, you can soon notice

over the altar a painting of Bartolomeo Garavaglia, a painter and follower

of the Guercino. It portrays the great Eucharist Miracle of 1453.

Interior of the Corpus Domini’s Basilica

Imprints of the Host of the Miracle

Commemorative plaque of the Miracle, Turin

Representations of Miracle of Turin

Basilica of the Corpus

Domini, Turin

TURIN

ITALY, 1453

Eucharistic Miracle of

The iron with which the miraculous Host had been engraved was

transferred to Turin from Exilles in 1673 and in 1684 it was donated

to the municipality that still today keeps it among the deposits of the

municipality’s historic archives.

Reproduction of the miraculous

Host taken from the miracle of

Turin illustrated on the occasion

of the first international

Eucharistic congress, Turin,

Canonica Brothers Typography,

1894 (Simeon Collection,

C 9200)

Box of cypress made by the town of Turin in 1672 to keep the

documents about the miracle

To house the miraculous Host, a

tabernacle was built in the cathedral

in 1455. The miraculous Host was

removed from the tabernacle in

1492 when the works for the

construction of the new edifice,

planned by Meo del Caprino, were

started. In 1528, on the spot where

the miraculous event took place, the

aedicule of Matthew Sanmicheli

was built. It was decorated with

paintings that were recalling the

most important phases of the event.

This edifice was replaced by the

present church of Corpus Domini,

which was started by Ascanio

Vittozzi in 1604. The building of

Corpus Domini was decided by the

municipality in 1598 during the

epidemic of the plague, and also to

answer to a request made by the

Holy Spirit Confraternity.

Anonymous, Miracle of the Blessed Sacrament, occurred in the very

famous and glorious town of Turin, in the year 1453 on June 6 about

8:00 P.M., engraved plate attached to The Secular Year (Simeon Collection

C 2412). The triptych illustrates the salient phases of the event:

the stealing of the consecrated Host at Exilles, the falling down

of the she-mule, the ascension of the Host, and its depositing into the

chalice. The two lateral arches are surmounted by the city’s coat of

arms.

G.A. Recchi, frescoes that describe the miracle and that are at the

town hall of Turin

Plaque on which it is said that the Host of the miracle was consumed,

“to not oblige God to perform an eternal miracle…”

Then suddenly the

bag opened and

the monstrance

with the consecrated

Host rose over the

surrounding houses

while the people

were filled with

wonder.

Interior of Corpus

Domini’s Basilica

Chalice of the Miracle

of Turin

Luigi Vacca (1853), frescoes that decorate the basilica’s vault

and illustrate the stages of the miracle

Plaque where the mule fell down