1273-1280 A.D.
In the town of Lanciano, Italy, at the instruction of a sorceress, a woman named Ricciarella Stasio removed a consecrated Host from her church, with the intention to burn it and put the ashes into the the food or drink of her husband, as love potion, in an attempt to improve her troubled marriage. When the woman got home, she placed the Host in a jar over a fire, but instead of turning into ashes, the Host turned into a piece of bloody flesh. Horrified at what was taking place, Ricciarella wrapped the bloody Host in a cloth, and buried it under the manure in her husband’s stable. Strange events began to take place inside the stable. Every time that her husband's donkey entered the stable, it would genuflect toward the place where the miraculous Host was buried, and her husband began to think that his wife had put a spell on the animal. For seven years the Host remained buried under the manure in the stable, and Ricciarella was tormented with remorse for her sin. Finally, she decided to confess her sacrilege to the prior of the Augustinian priory in Lanciano, Giacomo Diotallevi, who accompanied her back to her home to retrieve anything that may remain of the Host. They went into the stable and dug up the cloth, where they discovered the bloody Host, which had remained incorrupt over the years.
A cross-shaped reliquary was made to contain the Host. When the craftsman grabbed the pyx containing the miraculous Host, in order to affix it to the reliquary, he was struck with a sudden fever. The man exclaimed, "What have you brought me, Oh my Brother?". The religious who were present, asked the man if he was in mortal sin, and the man said "Yes". The man made his confession to a priest and, the fever left him.
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