who referred to the church as the mystical body of christ
Body of Christ As used by Saint Paul in the Pauline epistles it refers to the Christian Church as a group of believers. In Roman Catholic theology the use of the phrase "mystical body" distinguishes the mystical body of Christ, the Church, from the physical body of Christ, and from a "moral body" such as any club with a common purpose.[1]
Miracle of Lanciano The miracle is usually described roughly as follows: In the city of Lanciano, Italy, then known as Anxanum, some time in the 700s, a Basilian hieromonk was assigned to celebrate Mass at the monastery of St. Longinus. Celebrating in the Latin Rite and using unleavened bread, the monk had doubts about the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation. During the Mass, when he said the Words of Consecration ("This is my body. This is my blood"), with doubt in his soul, the priest saw the bread change into living flesh and the wine change into blood which coagulated into five globules, irregular and differing in shape and size.[2] The miracle was supposed to have been contemporaneously investigated and confirmed by the Church, though no documents from this alleged investigation are extant.[2]