Miraculous Bread of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino
Miraculous bread of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino There is another thing for which St. Nicholas of Tolentino is famous, and that is the bread of Saint Nicholas. The tradition began when Nicholas was quite ill and beginning to show the ravages of old age; he was so sick and so debilitated, he was about to die. His superiors asked him to eat a little meat and some nourishing foods. After all, they pleaded, they needed him, they and the community and his Souls in Purgatory! He wanted to obey his superiors, but he also knew the power of fasting toward moving God's Heart. So he prayed to Our Lady. Now, we know how much she loves her priests, her favorite sons, especially ones like Nicholas of Tolentino. Mother Mary appeared with the Baby Jesus in her arms. She handed Nicholas a small bit of bread; the Infant Jesus was holding a chalice filled with water; Mother Mary enjoined Nicholas to dip the bread into the chalice and then to eat it. Upon obeying the Mother of God, his Mother, he immediately recovered from his illness, and had more strength than he had ever known before. From that time on, St. Nicholas would bless little pieces of bread, which he would distribute among the people. Healings abounded. SIDEBAR Author's note: When we visited Tolentino for the first time in 1977, the Nun at the Shrine gave us some "St. Nicholas' bread." There were approximately six little crackers[1] enclosed in cellophane packages. Just having returned to the Church two years before, and not having had much real education in the Faith at the time, Penny asked how much we were to give someone who was suffering, to bring about a cure. The Nun made a very wise statement, a teaching which has stayed with us these many years. She said: "It takes a little bread and a lot of faith." SIDEBAR Eight days before his death, our Lady appeared to St. Nicholas and prophesied that he would die on September the 10th, the third day after the anniversary of Mary's birth.[2] St. Nicholas was on his death bed and suffering. The enemy was attacking him mercilessly, these his last days. His soul was in anguish, as the enemy persisted, taunting him, disrupting his praying to the point he could barely remember the prayers. St. Nicholas turned to his Mother Mary and pleaded with her, saying he had endured the torments of the devil all his life; could he, his last hours on earth be undisturbed so that he could prepare properly for his entrance before the Lord. Our Lady left without giving him an answer. St. Nicholas continued praying. An Angel appeared to him, told him his prayers had been heard, and he would have the peace he desired. St. Nicholas spent his last days in peace, without any attacks from the devil. Not only that but he spent his last days, as if he were already in Paradise, his face illuminated. As Mother Mary had predicted, Saint Nicholas of Tolentino died on September 10, 1305. At his death, his tomb became immediately a shrine of veneration. Forty years after his death, a tomb was erected where the faithful could come to venerate the Saint. One day, a disturbed fanatic, desiring to have part of the Saint to bring back to his country,[3] decided to cut off his arms. When he performed this sacrilegious operation on the Saint's body, the Saint's arms began to bleed profusely, forty years after his death. The rest of the body has decomposed, but from that time on, the miraculous arms have been incorrupt and are venerated in their own special chapel. They are still solemnly processed on the Saint's Feast Day. |
