In March 1228, a young woman of Alatri (a hill town southeast of Rome), seeking to win the love of a man, consulted a sorceress who instructed her to steal a consecrated host. The girl received Communion, removed the host, and wrapped it in a small cloth. By the time she opened the cloth, the host had become a piece of bleeding flesh.
Terrified, she brought the relic to Bishop Giovanni of Alatri. Within months Pope Gregory IX, then in nearby Anagni, wrote to the bishop confirming the authenticity of the miracle — his letter survives. The relic of bleeding flesh has been preserved at Alatri Cathedral for nearly 800 years.