Did You Know Scientists Found Living Heart Tissue in a Church and Pope Francis, the First Latino Pope, Led the Investigation into This Inexplicable Phenomenon?

Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio on December 17, 1936, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and who passed away on April 20, 2025, made history as the first Latino to be elected pope. His papacy brought a shift in the image of the Catholic Church, grounding it closer to the global south and to a Latino identity long overlooked in Rome’s hierarchy.

Long before his election, he found himself connected to one of the most debated and controversial Eucharistic miracles in modern Catholic memory. In 1996, while serving as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, then-Cardinal Bergoglio received a report from Father Alejandro Pezet. A host had reportedly been discarded in a candleholder toward the back of a church in a Buenos Aires shopping district. Unable to consume it, Father Pezet placed it in water and secured it in the tabernacle.

Days later, the host had transformed. According to eyewitnesses and photographs taken on September 6, it appeared to have turned into a piece of flesh streaked with blood and had grown in size. This led Bergoglio to order a scientific investigation that would take years and span continents.

A Host That Would Not Decay Found by the Late Pope Francis

For several years, the host remained in the tabernacle. In that time, it reportedly showed no signs of decomposition. Eventually, a tissue sample was sent to a laboratory in Buenos Aires, where experts identified human red and white blood cells and cardiac tissue. The sample appeared to be alive, exhibiting movement in the cells as though it belonged to a beating heart.

In 1999, the investigation deepened. Dr. Ricardo Castañón Gómez, a former atheist and neuropsychologist known for investigating Eucharistic phenomena, was asked to conduct further tests. In the presence of church officials, he collected another sample and sent it for analysis to a laboratory in New York. The scientists were not informed of the source.

Their results were consistent. The tissue came from the left ventricle of a human heart. It belonged to a man who appeared to be about 30 years old. The heart muscle had been under intense strain, suggesting that the individual had endured significant trauma prior to death.

The Cardiologist’s Verdict

In 2004, another test was conducted, this time with Dr. Frederick Zugibe, a renowned cardiologist and forensic pathologist. Like the earlier team, he was not told the origin of the sample. He confirmed the same findings. The tissue belonged to the left ventricle of a human heart, still inflamed, suggesting the man had suffered immense pain and physical abuse. He also observed that the white blood cells were actively penetrating the tissue, which only happens if the heart is still alive. White blood cells perish rapidly outside a living body.

Zugibe found the sample inexplicable. When later told by Australian journalist Mike Willesee and lawyer Ron Tesoriero that the tissue had first been placed in water for a month and then preserved for another three years, he said the survival of the white blood cells was scientifically impossible. He concluded that the transformation of the host into living tissue was a mystery far beyond scientific explanation.

The miracle known as the Eucharistic Miracle of Buenos Aires has been cited by some as physical evidence of Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist. Its connection to Bergoglio, who later became Pope Francis, remained largely confidential until the investigations were publicized by international journalists and theologians.

Whether one believes in the miraculous or in the mysterious processes of science, the story remains extraordinary. A host handled in secrecy became the subject of clinical studies that baffled leading researchers. For those in the faith, it may remain a moment of divine mystery. For others, it is a reminder of the limits of human understanding.