The reading
How it began
In 1597 a man stole a pyx of consecrated Hosts from the Jesuit church in Alcalá. He hid them. They were found, and over the years that followed they did not go the way of ordinary bread. The house kept them. They passed, in time, to the care of the convent of the Clares and remain among the relics Alcalá shows, under the name of the Holy Hosts.
The day itself
Incorruption of a Host is a different claim from a Host becoming flesh. Bread stales. A consecrated Host that remains is, in the Church’s reading, still Christ for as long as the appearances remain. Alcalá’s file is the appearances lasting far past the week a sacristan would expect. It is a local cult with a date and a theft, not a pathology report.
Reading
How to read Alcalá
Stealing a Host is a sacrilege whether or not the bread changes. Alcalá’s extra sentence is that what was stolen did not rot in the hiding place. The doctrine does not need that sentence. The town has not been willing to drop it.
Church status
How this sign has been received
Long veneration
Local cult from 1597, kept by the religious houses of Alcalá.
Sources
- Jesuit and Clarist memory of Alcalá
- Santos Corporales
For the classroom
Alcalá (1597, Alcalá de Henares). Grade in this encyclopedia: Long veneration. Host stolen from a church in Alcalá were recovered and kept. They did not corrupt. The Jesuits and then the town preserved them as the Santos Corporales.
