The Legnica Eucharistic claim
A host dropped at Christmas Mass 2013 in St Hyacinth's church, Legnica, was placed in water and developed a red discoloration that the diocese later said a forensic institute identified as heart-like human tissue.
2013 CE · 51.21, 16.16 · status: disputed
The account
The diocese commissioned studies in Wrocław and Szczecin in 2014–15, and Bishop Zbigniew Kiernikowski announced the results in 2016. The church became a place of pilgrimage.
The sceptical view
The two laboratories disagreed: the Wrocław team found no human DNA but did find fungal growth, and one of its scientists later attributed the pigments to microbes. Critics again pointed to Serratia marcescens.
The researched reading
A red stain on a wafer kept in water, a classic setting for microbes. The two laboratories disagreed, and microbial growth reproduces the effect.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A known natural phenomenon | 50% | A wafer left in water grows bacteria and fungi, and red pigments from Serratia marcescens and some fungi look like blood. The Wrocław laboratory found fungal growth and no human DNA. A later controlled study grew similar red areas on unconsecrated wafers. |
| Undetermined | 25% | The share a generic explanation had beyond what has been shown for this case: it fits many cases like this one, but has not been demonstrated for this one. |
| A cultural story | 10% | The diocese chose the laboratories and framed the results. The tradition of bleeding-host miracles shaped how the stain was read. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 8% | Contamination or substitution of tissue cannot be excluded, since no chain of custody or independent replication was published. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 4% | One forensic institute reported features like heart tissue, but the findings conflict and were not peer-reviewed. |
| Perception, memory or mind | 3% | Expectation shapes how a red stain is described, but the stain is physical. |
Official position: The diocese announced in 2016 that a forensic institute found heart-like human tissue, and the Vatican allowed veneration.