Miracle Hunter shares stories, faith and science

By RENEE WEBB
Content and Design Coordinator

This year marks the third year St. Therese of Lisieux Parish of Ida Grove, Danbury and Mapleton held a Eucharistic Rosary Congress.

One of the highlights of this weeklong event was a talk on Oct. 1 by Michael O’Neill, an award-winning author and EWTN radio/television host. Known as The Miracle Hunter, the renowned speaker is creator of the popular miracle-tracking website. He is the host of EWTN’s They Might Be Saints about the lives of saints and search for canonization miracles. 

He is executive producer of the new EWTN show called Hidden Gems: Catholic Shrines in America that will feature episodes on Trinity Heights Queen of Peace and Grotto of the Redemption shrines in the Diocese of Sioux City.

In his talk at Sacred Heart Church in Ida Grove, O’Neill took listeners on a hunt that explored mysteries and miracles in the church.

Pointing out that in 2033, the Catholic Church will have its 2000^th anniversary that is anticipated to include many celebrations.

But for all of the excitement there might be, O’Neill said there are going to be people who say, 2000 years is a long time. The church is really old and is based on a dusty old book.

“Some might say I don’t put my faith in religion or the Catholic Church, I put my faith in science,” he said. “I’m here to tell you today that maybe, just maybe in fact science can lead us to God.”

During his talk, he gave an overview of the different types of miracles.

“For today’s presentation, we are going to be looking at the way the church uses science to examine miracles, look a little bit at Catholic belief in miracles and the history of eucharistic miracles,” explained O’Neill.

He presented a few types of eucharistic miracles and case studies, and noted he would try to answer the very tricky question - why are there eucharistic miracles when the Eucharist itself is the biggest miracle in the Catholic Church?

Main categories of miracles
Fairly early in his talk he spoke about how science is applied to the various types of miracles such things as medical healings, weeping icons, apparitions of the Virgin Mary, stigmata, incorruptible saints and eucharistic miracles. While there are other types of miracles, O’Neill said these were the main categories throughout Christian history.

Aside from healing miracles from Lourdes, where 7,000 have been recorded he noted thatO'Neill discusses the main categories of miracles. oftentimes healing miracles are identified in canonization causes. The speaker noted the rule book to examine healing miracles was established by a priest in the 1600s who went on to become Pope Benedict XIIII.

“The church moves at a glacier’s pace – they are still using that same rule book but the criteria is good,” said O’Neil, who said some of the conditions include that the disease must be serious/impossible to cure, healing is sudden, complete and permanent and no medical treatment could account for healing. One of the most difficult conditions when trying to attribute a miracle for a sainthood cause, he added, is that you must only have prayed to one saint.

When examining weeping icons and statues, the speaker said they are checked with an x-ray and other tests are done to rule out fraud.

O’Neill noted that of the 10,000 canonized saints within the church, only 100 are incorrupt.

“Only a tiny fraction of saints are incorrupt and some saints are not fully incorrupt. For example, one saint has an incorrupt tongue and they said he was a good speaker. Another saint has an incorrupt heart and they said he was a good lover of God. Another has an incorrupt finger and they say she pointed the way to God, so her finger is incorrupt. A lot of stories have to come up to explain this incorruptibility,” he described. “Some saints are incorrupt for hundreds and hundreds of years and others are just for decades. So why the difference, that’s another question for God.”

Eucharistic miracles
Through his experience and work in studying miracles, he has found the most clear-cut ones are eucharistic miracles – which are his favorite type of miracles. He stressed the fact that while these miracles are amazing, that is not where the faith should reside.

As he delved into eucharistic miracles, he touched upon Scripture, John 6, that recaps the Last Supper and the eucharistic feast – a miracle that takes place in churches around the world.

“When we look at the total number of eucharistic miracles, the total number is 107 and the first one happened in Egypt in the year 400 and the most recent was in Legnica, Poland in the year 2013,” said O’Neill. “Twenty countries around the world have had eucharistic miracles – 90% have been European.” 

Since 1900, 70% of the miracles have been outside of Europe including the one investigated by Bishop Jorge Bergoglio – now Pope Francis – in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1996.

He mentioned there have been no approved eucharistic miracles in North America. However, he has received many emails about happenings and believes that there will be an approved miracle in the United States.

“We are all familiar with the true flesh and true blood made manifest out of consecrated hosts but there are other types of eucharistic miracles,” said the speaker, such as the multiplication of the bread. “In some cases, we see protection from danger – thieves, fire, flood and plague coming for the Eucharist.”

He shared brief synopsis of several miracles such as the one from 1345 in Poland where thieves stole a monstrance containing consecrated hosts and threw it into marshland as the vessel wasn’t gold. Priests looked for the hosts and after three days found them illuminated with light in the muddy marsh.

“When we talk about the famous cases of true flesh and true blood, there are just a handful of cases that have been fully investigated,” said O’Neill. “The local bishop will start the inquiry and chain of custody is very important. They always want to know who had the host, where was it, was it locked away and how was it provided. The samples are sent to an independent lab and they never tell where the sample is coming from.”

Commonalities
At the lab, scientists identify a variety of things such as if it is of human origin, what blood and tissue type it is and more. Several commonalities have shown a blood type of A/B, heart tissue and the presence of white blood cells, indicating trauma. The speaker noted they have tried to test the DNA many times but every time it was inconclusive – not a full profile. O’Neill said perhaps this is because there was a human mother and divine father. As a sidenote, the blood type of the Shroud of Turin is also A/B.

As he wrapped up the presentation, The Miracle Hunter again stressed that the Eucharist is the greatest miracle of the Catholic Church.

He acknowledged that when he is at Mass and if there ever is a moment of doubt “it sure 
helps me to reflect back on some of these incredible scientific studies that point to real presence and the amazing phenomenon we have in our Catholic Church that is even happening in today’s world. I invite you to reflect on these things, wonder about them and approach the Eucharist with reverence, joy and hope because this is the greatest gift we have.”

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