Cattedrale di San Paolo

Ok, I'm going to have two warnings for this trip on posts. If you don't want to see a possible dead body, don't look at all of the photos here.

This church on the top of the acropolis has two very interesting stories.

First off we have the Beata Maria Raffaella Cimatti. She was a nun during WWII and treated the sick and wounded at great risk to herself - she sounds like she was an woman of heroism and virtue. She even interceded with a Nazi general for the people of Alatri.

She was beatified (given the title of Blessed) for a miracle of healing she was involved in, and because her body lying in state in the church is said to have not corrupted.

Secondly, one of Alatri's claims to fame besides the walls is the Eucharistic Miracle of 1228. A young woman was trying to make a young man fall in love with her, and was told by a local conjure woman that she needed the communion wafer as an ingredient for a love potion. I'll let the Pope of the time explain further:

"(Pope Gregory IX in response to Bishop Giovanni V of Alatri)

Gregory, Bishop and Servant of the Servants of God, to Venerable Brother Bishop of Alatri, greetings and Apostolic blessing.

We have received your letter, dearest brother, in which you informed us of a certain young woman misguided by an evil woman, who, after having received from the priest the Most Holy Body of Christ, held the Sacred Host in her mouth until the right moment to conceal the Holy Eucharist in a cloth.

After three days, she discovered the same Body which she had received in the form of bread transformed into flesh, as everyone has been able to verify with their own eyes.

Because both women have humbly revealed this to you, you desire our opinion regarding the punishment that should be imposed upon them.

First, we give thanks with all our strength to Him Who, though He always operates in marvelous ways, in this case repeats miracles and produces new wonders so that He calls to sinners, converts evildoers and confounds heretics while strengthening faith in the truth of the Catholic Church, sustaining hope and reigniting charity.

Thus, dearest brother, by means of this apostolic letter, we dispose that you inflict a milder punishment on the young woman, whom we hold to have done this more from weakness than malice, especially because it can be believed that she has sufficiently repented in confessing her sin.

To the instigator, who with her perversion pushed the young woman to commit sacrilege, apply those disciplinary measures that we believe opportune to leave to your judgment. She should also visit the nearest bishop so that she can humbly confess her crime, imploring pardon with devout submission.”

The Pope interpreted this episode as a sign against the widespread heresies regarding the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and pardoned the two repentant women. A commemorative medal was coined on the 750th anniversary of the miracle; one side showed the cathedral façade and the reliquary, while the other a bust of Pope Gregory IX with the Papal Bull.Read more