Benninger Host Miracle
The Benninger Host Miracle is a historical narrative of an event that is said to have occurred in 1216 in Benningen near Memmingen in Upper Swabia . The miraculous host made St. Martin in Memmingen a pilgrimage church . In 1466 the recognition of the host as an altar sacrament was withdrawn because it had largely disintegrated. During the Reformation , the remains of the host are said to have been inserted into the walls of St. Martin in an unknown place.
narrative
The story is written on oil in the reed chapel :
I. Figure
Two millers lived here, called Riedmüller. One of them lived well and was undoubtedly honest, so he was also very lucky. The other was not so happy, so he was jealous of the first and tried to change his luck into unhappiness. In response to a devilish suggestion, on Green Thursday, he takes the most venerable sacrament of the altar that has just been received in the parish church, moves himself a little to one side, takes it out of his mouth and wraps it in his scarf.
II. Figure
When he got home, he hid it in a wooden mug and goes out with it in the evening. Pretending to his wife that, following Christ's example, he wanted to spend this night in the open field in prayer, but secretly sneaks into his neighbor's mill, places the cup with the holy host under the mill chair by the gudgeon.
III. figure
While the villain now hopes that misfortune will arise in his neighbor's mill, but this did not happen, but instead, he was always endowed with more luck and blessings, he took the 12th of March again after a whole year in a dark night holy host, as it were, snorting out revenge and that it would certainly be ground, he pushed it under the millstone.
IV. Figure
Almighty God, however, did not want this disgrace to happen to his most venerable sacraments, but soon afterwards a pitiful voice was heard with these words: "Here I am ground the highest good." The miller was shocked and noticed at the same time that the voice was coming from the millstone, he picked it up, found the holy host and the cup standing next to it.
V. Figure
The miller, full of fear and fear, reports everything to the Ammann of the village of Beningen. After taking a closer look, he told the pastor, who made an institution without sanctification to pick up the most honorable, due as usual, with crosses and flags. The miller, however, did not know what to do, so he put the holy host in the cup and ran with it to the village, where the pastor met him halfway. The latter takes the cup with the utmost respect, not without reprimand, and in order to honor it wüdlichen he places the holy host on a consecrated paladium or corporal, with frequent blood flowing down his hand. The priest then took the blood-stained host and carried it with the greatest possible devotion to his parish church, to a suitable place.
VI. figure
So that the faith and the truth of the most holy sacrament of the altar would be better recognized, enhanced and strengthened by the miracle, the praiseworthy imperial city of Memmingen, which was still a good Roman Catholic at that time, paused reverently to give them this venerable miracle host which they received willingly from Konrad, the very godly abbot of Ottobeuren, out of sheer zeal to promote the glory of God. So the so-called Holy Blood was then transferred from Beningen to the city, namely to St. Martin's Church, by the Memmingian pastors with a great procession, accompanied by the whole priesthood and Clerisea, including a lot of people.
VII. U. VIII. Figure
When this holy property was at most venerated in Memmingen, many miracles and graces happened through it, including their own old annual and archive writings, different and much reported about it. Namely, that a dead child and other dead, crooked, blind, water-addicts coated with this miracle host, became alive, straight, standing and healthy, even sick people who drank from the cup became well again.
IX. figure
Friedrich Bishop of Augsburg came to Memmingen in person, willing to place the holy, blood-drenched host in a silver monstrance, and when he performed this, like the priest, the wonderful blood from this host often flowed over his hands.
Other legends related to the miracle
Other versions of this legend claim that the other miller stole a second host during the service and placed it under his own millstone. With him the host is said not to have begged for mercy, but to have been ground by the millstone. When the host was ground, his mill sank in Benninger Ried . The reed chapel is said to have been built in its place.