An Indiana Catholic church shocked the country when parishioners spotted communion wafers apparently bleed.
Worshippers across America were stunned at the sight of the food leaking a red substance that appeared to symbolize Jesus’ bleeding body.
But weeks later it has been completely debunked, with scientists revealing the true cause of the coloring.
The discovery was made at St Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Morris, a small town with a population of less than 1,000, near Cincinnati.
The Archdiocese of Indianapolis requested the study on the wafers after red marks were found and the results concluded it was not a miracle.
The discoloration was caused by common bacteria typically found on human hands, the Archdiocese said in a statement.
In the Catholic Church, the communion wafer is used to receive the ritual of the Eucharist.
The wafer symbolizes Jesus’s body while wine is used to signify his blood. The potential presence of blood on the wafer shocked parishioners and speculations arose that a Eucharistic miracle occurred.
A red stain appeared on the wafer after it was put in a cup of water, which signaled the potential of a Eucharistic miracle
The wafer was discovered at St. Anthony of Padua in Morris, Indiana, a small town outside of Cincinnati
The host had fallen out of a Mass kit and after the red spots were discovered, the Archdiocese submitted it for a professional biochemical analysis.
Father Stanley Pondo is the current priest at St. Anthony
Three different species of bacteria were found on the wafer along with the presence of a fungus.
‘Throughout the history of the Catholic Church, there have been well-documented miracles and apparitions, and each has been thoroughly and carefully reviewed,’ the Archdiocese said in a statement.
The news marked a disappointing end to what church members were hoping would put their small town on the map.
‘We have such a little town. You can drive through and blink and you’re through it,’ Shari Strassell a member of St. Anthony, told local news outlet WKRC-TV.
‘It means the world, it does, and I think there is something special about our church up here.’
Eucharistic miracles are few and far between, however, there have been several instances where blood did appear to bleed from the host.
The red markings on the communion wafer were discovered to be from three different species of bacteria and a fungus commonly found on human hands
The Archdiocese of Indianapolis confirmed that the red stain found on a communion wafer in Indiana was not the result of a miracle
Eucharistic miracles are rare, however, the Catholic church has documented several instances in the 21st century where evidence of blood appeared on the communion hosts
In 2013, a host fell on the floor at Mass on Christmas Day in Legnica, Poland. It was put in water to dissolve and turned into type AB blood.
A similar instance occurred in 2008 in Sokolka, Poland, when a priest placed a host in a container of water after accidentally dropping it.
A week later a nun observed a red stain and two separate medical schools found cardiac tissue on the host.
Scientists in Tixtla, Mexico found red blood cells on a host after a red stain was discovered during a mass in 2006.