Case file · Apparition / miracle
The bleeding host of Juazeiro
On 1 March 1889 the communion host given by Father Cícero Romão Batista to a seamstress, Maria de Araújo, in Juazeiro, Ceará, was said to turn to blood in her mouth. It happened again many times.
1889 CE · -7.21, -39.31 · status: disputed
The account
Doctors and priests attested the phenomenon, and pilgrims poured in. The Vatican ruled against the miracle in the 1890s and suspended Father Cícero, but he remained the patriarch of Juazeiro and its mayor. He is still revered as a saint by millions in the Northeast, and the Church moved toward rehabilitating him in 2015.
The sceptical view
Church investigators concluded there was no miracle, and fraud was suspected. Maria de Araújo's grave was later destroyed and her remains lost.
Connections in the atlas
- Father Donizetti's healings, Tambaú
- Frei Damião, the missionary of the sertão
- Caldeirão de Santa Cruz do Deserto