Eucharistic Miracle of Stich

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Hugh_Farey

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In connection with another discussion, I have been introduced to the Eucharistic Miracle of Stich, in 1970. In general I am not a believer in the physical reality of eucharistic miracles, and usually find that such evidence as is claimed to demonstrate them authentic is weak. However, I have come across some quite specific references to the forensic analysis of this particular event, which I would like to investigate for myself. The alleged miracle is extensively covered by Joan Carroll Cruz in her book on Eucharistic Miracles, but she does not give any references at all. I have attempted to discover more, but failed. If any readers can provide any guide as to how to find out more, I should be grateful.

The story goes that during mass on 9 June 1970, in the chapel of Stich, Bavaria, two corporals and an altar cloth became stained with blood.

On 11 June, the cloths were sent to the “Clinical Institute for Radial Therapy and Nuclear Medicine and the Polyclinical Institute of the University of Zurich”

I cannot identify either of these institutes. Does anybody know them?

On 14 June, the miracle repeated itself on another corporal. This was sent to the “District Hospital of Cercee”, although Carroll Cruz says that this is a phonetic, not an actual spelling.

Can anyone identify this hospital?

The results of the first examination were issued by “Sister Marta Brunner”, and signed by “the Director of the Chemical Laboratory, the Chief of the Blood Control Laboratory, a student medicine in his sixth term, and the Chief of the Laboratory for the Analysis of Haemorrhage and Coagulation.” The official stamps of the Institutes mentioned above were attached.

On 3 August the results of the second examination were received.

Depositions were received from two brothers Joseph and Johannes Talscher, sacristans of Stich and Maria-Rhein respectively, and a nun who was a “nurse of the Municipal Hospital of Rosenheim”, who were witnesses to the second miracle. There were also other depositions from unspecified other witnesses.

On 9 October, Bishop Joseph Stimpfle of Augsburg instituted an inquiry and all the details having been received the matter was referred to the Doctrinal Congregation in Rome.

Can anyone verify any of this?
 
Joan Carroll Cruz was a respected Catholic writer and the book from which this was taken has a Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur. It’s interesting, however, that there seems to be no account online in English about this Miracle of Stich other than just sites repeating basically what was in her book.

It’s also interesting that this miracle isn’t mentioned on the Miracle Hunter website (miraclehunter.com ) which collects such accounts under “Eucharistic Miracles”. You might try contacting Michael O’Neill who runs that site to see if he knows anything.

In reviewing the account from Cruz, I note that the areas of Stich and Maria-Rhein (which on Google maps is called “Maria-Rain”) are located near the town of Kempten, Germany in Bavaria. This is one of the oldest towns in Germany, but it doesn’t seem particularly close to the Swiss border - about 100 km away or 60 miles. The U of Zurich does have a Department of Nuclear Medicine and describes itself as a “world leader” in pioneering such techniques, so it would not have been out of the question to have an Institute for Radiotherapy (I am guessing “Radial Therapy” was a spelling or editing error) and Nuclear Medicine at that University in 1970s. I also think these departments would have had German names which Cruz or someone translated to English so they were probably more like “Klinikum for Nuklearmedizin” or whatever in the original.
 
As for “Cercee”, I note that the letter C usually isn’t used that way in German so this seems to be some translation issue, that there are a lot of “sees” (lakes and similar little bodies of water) in that area, and that there is a large Austrian municipality called “Thiersee” that’s pronounced roughly like an English speaker would say “Cercee” that is just south of the border with Bavaria, not far from Rosenheim. So maybe that’s where the District Hospital was.

Or it could have been “Chiemsee” which is a Bavarian district, pronounced kind of like “KIM-zee”.
 
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Thanks again. By mentioning a phonetic spelling, Carroll Cruz rather gives the impression that she discovered all this by interview or conversation rather than any documentary evidence. I’ll inquire further!
 
There have been scientific analysis of Eucharistic miracles, even a quite famous one.
 
She may well have interviewed some of the German speakers in Bavaria. Or she might have obtained a poor translation of documents. Translators often do poorly with place names, especially if they’re being paid by the hour - they’ll just type what it sounds like phonetically and move on.

The one thing I’m wondering about is whether the Doctrinal Congregation in Rome decided there was insufficient evidence for this, or some other reason for them to just quietly not discuss it further, but given how many copies of that Cruz book are floating around out there ( a lot), one would expect more discussion.
 
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