The Guardian Angel: Eucharistic Miracle of Argentina 1996

As the scientific equipment and the scientific expertise have enhanced over time, science in its own way has helped in affirming the Superrnatural that happens at every Mass. This is the creator of the Universe, may we humble ourselves before Him and Adore Him, and seek purity before we receive Him, "Christ held Himself in His hands when He gave His Body to His disciples saying: 'This is My Body.' No one partakes of this Flesh before he has adored it."

- St. Augustine HIS Heart into our Hearts. God Bless. To Jesus through Mary, GregoryMary

This is the account given by Professor Castañon regarding the Eucharistic Miracle that occurred in 1996 still in the Parish of Saint Mary: “On August 15, 1996, a faithful received the consecrated Host in his hands to take communion but he let it inadvertently fall to the ground and thought not to pick it up because it seemed “dirty” to him. Another person, more pious, noticed what had happened, picked it up and placed it apart immediately informing the priest, Father Alejandro Pezet. The priest, following the directives of the Church in these circumstances. put the Host in a vessel full of water which he placed in the tabernacle awaiting that it would dissolve.”

On August 26 the tabernacle was reopened to get the vessel with the fallen Host, and it was observed that it was not dissolved and showed several reddish stains that became larger each day. The priests of the parish went immediately to the Archbishop of Buenos Aires to recount what had happened. It was decided to wait before proceeding with the investigations and in 1999, after the Archbishop was made aware of the fact that I was performing for free these scientific investigations, he entrusted me to take up the case.

On October 6, 1999, I went to Buenos Aires and interviewed the 5 priests’ witnesses of the event who told me that there had been another consecrated Host which had bled in May of 1992. They had put it in distilled water which is the worst way to preserve something and for this I was very concerned. Everyone knows that when one draws blood it is possible to obtain the leukocyte formula (white blood cells). In blood there is a variety of white blood cells with specific characteristics.

The priests, in the first miracle, had asked one of their lady parishioners who was a chemist to analyze the bleeding Host. She discovered that it was human blood and that it presented the entire leukocyte formula. She was very surprised to observe that the white blood cells were active. The lady doctor could not however do the genetic examination since at that time it was not easy to perform it.

I brought a sample from the 2 Hosts which had bled, before the archiepiscopal notary who certified the legality of that action, as requested by the authorities of the Church in Argentina. I would like to point out that before inviting me, the then Archbishop of Buenos Aires had already contacted the Holy See to ask for references about me. These were given by H.E. Most Rev. Gianfranco Girotti, who then was under-secretary at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and direct collaborator of Cardinal Ratzinger.

On October 21 I went to the Forensic Analytical genetics laboratory in San Francisco, which was supposed to perform the analysis of the samples that I had brought. On January 28 of 2000 they found some fragments of human DNA in the samples, it was human blood that contained the human genetic code. In March of 2000 I was informed that also the famous legal histopathologist Dr. Robert Lawrence, one of the top experts in tissues, would participate in this analysis.

I feared for the participation of Dr. Robert Lawrence because this would have required some substantial costs which I would have had to bear myself, but I was told that they desired his collaboration because in the samples they had found some substances which resembled human tissues. Dr. Lawrence studied the samples and found in them human skin and white blood cells. In December of 2000 Dr. Lawrence told me that he could have obtained other samples of DNA.”

“In 2001 I went with my samples to Professor Linoli who identified the white blood cells and said to me that most probably the samples corresponded to heart tissue. The results obtained from the samples were similar to those of the studies performed on the Host of the Miracle of Lanciano. In 2002 we sent the sample to Professor John Walker at the University of Sydney in Australia who confirmed that the samples showed muscle cells and intact white blood cells and everyone knows that white blood cells outside our body disintegrate after 15 minutes and in this case 6 years had already passed.”

In September of 2003 I went again to Professor Robert Lawrence who confirmed that in the light of the new investigations one could conclude that the sample could correspond to the tissue of an inflamed heart. The studies therefore had demonstrated that these tissues were of an inflamed heart: this meant that the person to whom they belonged must have suffered a lot.

To clarify our doubts, on March 2, 2004 we went to the greatest expert in cardiac pathologies and forensic medicine of the heart, Professor Frederick Zugibe of New York, at Columbia University. The professor however did not know that the sample I had brought to him came from a consecrated Host. ‘The sample which you brought me - Professor Zugibe said to me - is the muscle of the heart, of the myocardium, it is precisely the left ventricle’ and he confirmed that my patient had suffered a lot.

Then I asked him: ‘Doctor, why has my patient suffered a lot?’ He answered me: ‘Because your patient has some thrombi, at certain moments he could not breathe, oxygen did not reach him, he labored and suffered much because every aspiration was painful. Probably they gave him a blow at the level of the chest. Moreover the heart showed dynamic activity (alive) at the moment when you brought me the sample.’ ‘Why, I ask him?’ ‘Because we found some intact white blood cells and white blood cells are transported only by the blood and thus if white blood cells are here it is because at the moment in which you brought me the sample it was pulsating.’

The professor then asked to whom this sample belonged and when we told him that it came from a consecrated Host he exclaimed: ‘I do not believe it.’ He was greatly moved. The same professor had shown to us in a book the case of one of his patients who showed the same lesions, similar to those of the sample that we had brought to him.

The myocardium is the muscle that gives life to the whole heart and to our body. Rightly a theologian made me note that the fact that it was really the myocardium, was not casual but it concealed a symbolism. The Lord in this miracle wanted to show us his myocardium, which is the muscle that gives life to the whole heart, just as the Eucharist does with the Church. And why the left ventricle? Because from it comes the purified blood and Jesus is the one Who purifies his Church from her sins.

Doctor - Professor Zugibe said to me again, at the moment in which you brought me this sample, this heart was alive!’ His report was sent out on March 26, 2005, 5 years and a half after the start of the studies and the conclusions were: ‘They are tissues of the heart, undergoing degenerative changes of the myocardium and these changes are due to the fact that the cells are inflamed and it is the left ventricle of the heart.’” On March 17, 2006 I brought the results to Cardinal Jorge Maria Bergoglio.