Discover the Eucharistic Miracle of Offida: the Host of Lanciano Turned to Flesh

The village of Offida, one of the most beautiful in the Marche, has guarded since 1280 one of the most dramatic Eucharistic relics in Italy: the consecrated Host desecrated in Lanciano by a woman and changed into bleeding flesh. A novel-like tale of superstition, repentance and faith, binding together forever two towns a hundred kilometres apart.

The Story of Ricciarella

Around 1273, in Lanciano, a woman named Ricciarella, hoping to win back the love of her husband Giacomo Stasio, turned to a sorceress who ordered her to commit a sacrilege: to receive Communion, keep the Host and grind it into a powder to be given to her husband. Ricciarella took the Host and tried to burn it on a roof tile: but the Host turned into living, bleeding flesh. Terrified, the woman wrapped everything in a cloth and buried the bundle in the stable, beneath the manure.

For seven years, tradition recounts, the household donkey knelt whenever it entered the stable. Only then did Ricciarella, consumed by remorse, confess everything to the Augustinian prior Friar Giacomo Diotallevi, a native of Offida: when the cloth was dug up, the Host-flesh was found incorrupt.

From Lanciano to Offida

Friar Giacomo brought the relic to his Offida, where in 1280 it was received with solemnity. To house it, the friars commissioned in Venice a precious silver cross-reliquary, a masterpiece of thirteenth-century goldsmithery. The church of Sant’Agostino, raised to the rank of Sanctuary of the Eucharistic Miracle, has been its home ever since.

Sant’Agostino and the Village of Offida

Alongside the relic, Offida offers visitors the spectacular Santa Maria della Rocca perched above the ravine, the streets of bobbin lace-makers and one of the most scenic squares in the Marche: a pilgrimage that is also an immersion in beauty.

Historical Clues and “Adventurous” Research:

• The Venetian cross-reliquary: study the thirteenth-century goldsmith work of the reliquary, among the most important in Italy for a Eucharistic miracle.
• The process of memory: the ancient accounts of Ricciarella’s story have come down in several versions: comparing them is an exercise in historical criticism.
• The link with Lanciano: the Abruzzo city of the first great Eucharistic miracle is also the origin of this relic: a “twin” itinerary waiting to be travelled.

Useful Information for Pilgrims

• Address: Corso Serpente Aureo, Offida (AP), Italy
• Opening Hours: enquire with the parish or the Diocese of Ascoli Piceno.
• Getting There: Offida is reached from the A14 motorway (Grottammare or San Benedetto exit) following the Tesino valley.

Historical source: the international exhibition “The Eucharistic Miracles of the World” created by Carlo Acutis (miracolieucaristici.org).