In 1194 a married woman of Augsburg, of weak faith, removed a consecrated host from her mouth after Communion and brought it home, sealing it in two pieces of beeswax. She kept it hidden in her bedroom for five years.
Tormented by conscience, on May 11, 1199 she opened the wax in the presence of her parish priest. Inside the wax the host had transformed into two pieces of red flesh joined to one another by visible red sinews. The phenomenon was investigated by Bishop Udalskalk of Augsburg, who placed the relic at the Cathedral. In 1325 it was translated to the Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche (Basilica of the Holy Cross), where it remains in its original 13th-century crystal reliquary above the high altar — uniquely venerated, since the 16th century, in both the Catholic and Lutheran (now ecumenically shared) churches of Augsburg.