It’s easy to forget, sometimes, that Jesus has a human nature.
Yet it’s fascinating to think that He has such attributes as eye color, hair color, and skin tone. His Most Precious Blood, too, is real human blood, and as such belongs to one of eight different types: A+, B+, AB+, O+, or one of the corresponding negative types.
According to available evidence, Jesus’ blood is type AB. We aren’t sure if it’s positive or negative.
Isn’t it marvelous to think that Jesus’ Precious Blood is human blood – and has a type?
How do we know? How, you ask, could we possibly know such a specific medical detail?
The evidence lies in the scientific tests that have been carried out on several different Eucharistic miracles and Passion relics in recent decades. Dr. Franco Serafini delves into some of these instances in A Cardiologist Examines Jesus: The Stunning Science Behind Eucharistic Miracles.
Dr. Serafini—an Italian cardiologist—reports that all those specimens that were tested for blood type returned a result of AB, a blood type whose rarity supports their authenticity. AB occurs in only about 5% of the current human population. (Insufficient tests have been performed to decide definitively the Rh factor—that is, if it is + or -.)
Dr. Serafini explains that it would be nearly impossible to randomly replicate AB across these different specimens. Not only are they distinct examples from different places and historical epochs, but some of them, significantly, have been handed down from eras in which blood types had not yet been discovered: such as the Passion relics, and the 8th-century Eucharistic miracle of Lanciano.
These are just a few of the amazing facts explained by Dr. Serafini in his captivating book A Cardiologist Examines Jesus: The Stunning Science Behind Eucharistic Miracles. Do we know, for example, what kind of tissue is found in these miracles? Is the tissue alive or dead? What does it tell us about the Man it came from? The science really will stun you—and renew your faith in the Miracle that happens on our altars every day. Available today at The Catholic Company!
