These 6 Modern Miracles Are Actually Recognized By The Catholic Church.

In the small Irish village of Knock there were reportedly sightings of biblical figures illuminated outside the local church. Two women (both named Mary by the way) saw the figures, and when they got closer realized it was The Virgin herself, along with St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist. One of the Mary’s went to get the rest of the town, and when they arrived an alter appeared with a young lamb laying on top. It was made an official apparition by the Pope in 1979.

Mary also appeared to a man named Juan Diego on a small hill near Mexico City called ‘Tepeyac hill’. She told Diego that she loved the people of Mexico and wanted Diego to tell the local bishop to build a church on the hill. As proof to the bishop she asked Diego to carry some flowers to him in his tilma (like a robe). When he took out the flowers the bishop and Diego were shocked to see a mysterious imprint of Mary on the fabric.

Although this miracle took place more than a thousand years ago, it actually wasn’t confirmed as a miracle until 1971. Supposedly in a town in what is now Lanciano, Italy lived a monk who doubted the presence of the Lord the Eucharist. One day as he was saying the Words of Consecration, the bread literally turned into human flesh and the wine into blood. In 1971 some professors of the University of Vienna confirmed that the host was in fact human flesh which coagulated into five globules for each one of the wounds Jesus sustained on the cross and the wine was indeed blood, type AB.

In 1973 Japan Sister Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa began having visions of the Virgin Mary and slowly the appearance of a cross shaped wound started forming on her hand. One night the wound starting burning painfully, she heard a voice coming from the statue of the Virgin Mary in the chapel. Later, a few other sisters noticed the statue was bleeding from the hand and started weeping. The statue continued weeping at an interval of 8 months on 101 occasions.

Francesco Forgione was an Italian priest later canonized into sainthood as Saint Pio of Pietrelcina and was famous for his stigmata (mysterious wounds in the hands, similar to the ones Jesus sustained during crucifixion). Although he himself was embarrassed by his affliction, his wounds garnered him a lot attention from the religious and secular. Physicians were fascinated by his wounds because although always present, never grew infected.

In Cova da Iria fields, Portugal, as many as 100,000 people assembled in order to view a miracle prophesied by three shepard boys. All who were there claim that after a fit of rain, the clouds opened and the sun appeared brighter than usual. It then began to move in a slow zig-zag pattern. People who were wet from the rain said their clothes dried instantly and believed this either to be a sign of God’s love, or the end of the world as we know.

A mass apparition of the Virgin Mary is believed to have occurred in Cairo after a bus mechanic thought he saw a woman attempting to jump from the Zeitoun church. As more and more people saw this figure over the span of two or three years, it began to be understood that this was a sign from God. It is estimated that the figure was seen by over 250,000 people since it’s first sighting.