Preserved in the Apophthegmata Patrum (Sayings of the Desert Fathers) and dating to the late 4th or early 5th century, this is the earliest recorded Eucharistic miracle in Christian literature. Three monks of the great desert monastery of Scete (Wadi El Natrun, in the western Egyptian desert) were arguing about whether the bread of the Eucharist was truly the Body of Christ. One could not bring himself to believe. The elders said: 'Let us all three pray that God reveal it.'
At the next Sunday liturgy, as the bread was placed on the altar and the prayer of consecration began, the monk who had doubted saw the bread become an infant; at the breaking of the bread he saw an angel descend with a sword that pierced the infant and let his blood flow into the chalice. The monk wept aloud: 'Lord, I believe that this bread is your body and this chalice your blood.' Immediately the flesh in the priest's hands became bread again and he received it.