The reading
How it began
In 1649, in the small parish of Eten on the north coast of Peru, the town assembled for Mass. The contemporary relation says that in the Host, at the elevation and again on later days, a child appeared, seen by the priest and by the people. The bishop of Trujillo was informed. The inquiry of that century took depositions.
The day itself
Eten still keeps the devotion and shows the vessels of the event. It is a vision in the Host, not a piece of flesh under a microscope. The Church in the place received it. Rome has not defined it. A visitor is looking at a parish that has not forgotten a particular Mass, not at a new doctrine.
Reading
How to read Eten
What the town says it saw was the Child, which is to say the one the Host already is, if the Church is right about the Mass. The sign does not add a second Christ. It is a claim that, for a few elevations, the appearance matched the faith.
Church status
How this sign has been received
Locally approved
Diocesan inquiry in the seventeenth century; continuous parish cult. Not a Roman definition.
Sources
- Parish of Eten
- Seventeenth-century depositions for the bishop of Trujillo
For the classroom
Eten (1649, Eten, Lambayeque). Grade in this encyclopedia: Locally approved. During Mass in the parish of Eten the Child was seen in the Host, more than once, by the town. The parish has kept the record and the monstrance.
