Recently I visited Pordenone, a small town in Friuli, in northeastern Italy. I was there with a group of journalists to visit the exhibition organized on the occasion of the upcoming anniversary of the birth of Joseph Ratzinger, “In Memory of Benedict XVI. On the Centenary of His Birth,” held at the local Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art.

During my stay in Pordenone, I discovered that not far from this town lies the village of Valvasone, where a relic of a Eucharistic miracle is preserved. This miracle is featured in the exhibition “Eucharistic Miracles” curated by Carlo Acutis. As Carlo’s mother revealed, her son decided to organize an exhibition on Eucharistic miracles recognized by the Church after visiting the exhibitions of the Meeting of Rimini in 2002. It was not an easy undertaking: it took about two and a half years and also required the involvement of his family members.

Saint Carlo Acutis maintained that the Word of God should be the compass of our lives and that the sacraments and prayer are the means to reach our goal, namely Heaven. He gave the utmost importance to the Sacrament of the Eucharist, which he called “my highway to Heaven.” He received his First Communion at just seven years old, and from then on he never missed daily Mass nor neglected the recitation of the Rosary. He always sought to participate in Eucharistic adoration, convinced that “standing before Jesus in the Eucharist makes us holy.” Carlo often wondered why there were endless lines of people waiting for hours for a rock concert or a movie, yet no one lined up for Jesus in the Eucharist. He said that people did not realize what they were missing, because otherwise churches would be so full that it would be difficult to enter. For this reason, as a catechist, he devoted himself to finding ever new ways to help others strengthen their faith. Thus was born the idea of an exhibition on Eucharistic miracles.

Among the miracles presented by Acutis, there is one from Friuli: a relic of this miracle is kept in the Church of the Most Holy Body of Christ in Valvasone, although the miracle actually occurred in the nearby town of Gruaro. In 1294, a young woman went to a washhouse along a canal to wash an altar cloth from the Church of San Giusto in Gruaro. Suddenly, she noticed that a consecrated host hidden among the folds of the cloth was oozing blood. Terrified by this inexplicable event, she immediately ran to inform the parish priest, who in turn informed the Bishop of Concordia, Giacomo d’Ottonella of Cividale. After verifying the facts, the bishop requested permission to keep the miraculous cloth in his cathedral in Concordia. However, both the parish priest of Gruaro and the Counts of Valvasone—patrons of the churches of Gruaro and Valvasone—also wished to preserve the altar cloth. As no agreement was reached, they decided to appeal to the Holy See, which ultimately authorized the Counts to keep the miraculous relic in Valvasone, on the condition that they build a church dedicated to the Most Holy Body of Christ. The church was completed in 1483, and it is here that the relic is preserved. The church, built in late Romanesque style, was renovated in the Neo-Gothic style at the end of the 19th century, with many wooden elements replaced by marble and the construction of a new façade.

The most reliable and oldest document describing the miracle is a rescript of Pope Nicholas V from 1454, which changed the name of the parish church of Valvasone from Saint Mary and Saint John the Evangelist to the Church of the Most Holy Body of Christ. Today, the cloth is kept in a glass cylinder supported by a precious silver reliquary made by the goldsmith Antonio Calligari, placed in a marble tabernacle above the high altar.

The Feast of the Sacred Cloth is celebrated on the fifth Thursday of Lent, at the conclusion of the days of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, with the participation of priests and the communities of the parish of Valvasone. During the feast of Corpus Christi, the relics are carried in procession together with the Blessed Sacrament.

Unfortunately, the reliquary is normally covered with a veil, so I was not able to admire this precious Eucharistic relic, which is almost unknown in the world. However, I was able to admire the church’s 16th-century organ, still in perfect working order, the only surviving example of the famous Venetian Renaissance organ in Italy. The organ is adorned with gilded friezes and doors decorated with paintings by Pomponio Amalteo and Giovanni Antonio de’ Sacchis, known as Pordenone, among the most renowned artists of the time.

The article was published in Polish by the weekly “Niedziela.”