Hosts. Three days later, on August 17th, that exact number of Hosts was found in the alms box of the Church of Saint Mary of Provenzano. They were of the same size and bore the same mark from the baking irons that other hosts at Saint Francis bore. As the alms box was only opened once a year, the Hosts were found among the dust and cobwebs.They were cleaned and taken back to the Church of Saint Francis in a solemn procession the next day.

With the passage of time, the clergy were surprised to notice that the Hosts did not change in appearance and even emitted a pleasant scent.

Fifty years later, an examination was conducted. On April 14, 1780, the Minister General of the Franciscan Order, Father Carloa normal starch content. Microscopic tests indicated that the Hosts were made from roughly sifted wheat flour. It was acknowledged that unleavened bread, prepared in a normal fashion and not kept in an airtight, antiseptic container would remain intact for only a few years. The stolen Hosts had been prepared in a normal manner, and they had been kept in an unsealed container. Accordingly, they should have deteriorated more than 150 years earlier. Professor Siro Grimaldi, professor of chemistry at the University of Siena and director of the Municipal Chemical Laboratory, was the chief chemical examiner during the tests. Summing up their findings, he declared, “The holy Particles of unleavened bread represent an example of perfect preservation … a singular phenomenon that inverts the natural law of the