The importance of religion for the past generations is shown by the presence of two sanctuaries in Piazza Plebiscito, which is the most important in town: first of all, the sanctuary of the Eucharistic Miracle in Lanciano, hosting the relics of the first Eucharistic Miracle in Catholic Church. It happened more than twelve centuries ago and is famous both in Italy and abroad; in the pilgrimage itineraries it is included among other important religious destinations like the Vatican and the sanctuaries of Padua, Bari and Assisi. The archaeological excavations confirm that the place of the Miracle always represented – before and after Christ – the main location of the spiritual life of the town: there were the ruins of a temple dedicated to Mars and, according to popular legends, a small temple in memory of the martyrdom of Cassius Longinus, the praetorian of Abruzzo origins who shortened Christ’s suffering by piercing his side with a spear and miraculously healed from an eye disease in that very moment; then he fled the army, became a deacon and spread the Lord’s message.

According to legend, Longinus got to Lanciano with a piece of the spear-relic and was welcomed like any other Christian but some Roman soldiers recognized him and he was brutally slaughtered; his head was put on a spear and brought to Jerusalem to prove that he had been executed. Then, the area saw the settlement of a Greek-Byzantine monastic settlement, building a church dedicated to saints. Domiziano and Legonziano; in this holy building, while celebrating the Mass, a Basilian monk was anguished by doubts about the presence of Christ in the Sacrament and, suddenly, the host and wine turned into flesh and blood, causing a real and impressing event. According to oral traditions and subsequent documents, this prodigious happening took place in the second half of the 8th century. As a matter of fact, there are no documents that are coeval with the Miracle and the first written testimonies date back to the 1586; they confirm the supernatural aspect of the event and its date with some considerations, such as the historical truthfulness of the presence of Greek-Orthodox monks and clergymen in Lanciano who, pressured by the Persians and Arabs, escaped to the Italian territories controlled by the Byzantines between the 7th and 8th centuries. The Relics were kept for almost five centuries by the Greek monks in the church of s. Legonziano; in the 12th century, as they were found guilty of the murder of a young merchant hosted in the Convent, the Basilian monks were expelled from the town (apparently, the guilty ones were hung at the tower windows that – after that terrible event – got walled up).

The role of guardians of the church and Miracle was taken up by the Benedictines and then, in 1252, the Franciscans who, as they wanted to settle in Lanciano, had raised the necessary funds to build a monastic church for their order. The friars – to whom Saint Francis had taught the greatest devotion for Eucharist and to pay the greatest care to Sacraments – felt sorry for the lack of a place that could suit the circumstances; moreover, they were particularly respectful of a decree of the 4th Lateran Council –held in 1215 – that, on the basis of the increasing venality of some clergymen, forbade to deceive pilgrims with inventions and false documents, determined that the Relics be exposed inside their case and prevented clergymen from making money out of pilgrims’ desire to get close to the Relics. Thus, as they were willing to keep the Relics in an honest way, the friars offered to keep the Relics in the church of s. Francesco – which was being built – that they wanted to include in the place of the Miracle. They decided to put the apse of the new church on the old church, making it become a crypt. In 1258, the church received the Relics that, placed in an ivory tabernacle and a Rock crystal chalice, were kept in an uneasily reachable chapel, which was later walled up to prevent profanation by the Turks. After the Saracen raids got to an end with the Battle of Lepanto (1571), the Miracle was placed where it could be reached by pilgrims and worshippers more easily, that is the chapel on the right of the main altar (next to which it is possible to read the story of the miracle on a memorial tabled dating back to 1636), and finally on the main altar where it is still today.

Except for the period that goes from the Napoleonic invasions to 1953, the sanctuary has always been in charge of the friars minors who guarded the Relics, which have been inspected many times by the ecclesial authorities (the most important inspections took place in 1574, 1637, 1770, 1886, 1970 and 1981). The people of Lanciano have always had faith in what they consider the Miracle par excellence (il Miracolo Eucaristico) and that represents the significant spiritual history of this small town. However, apart from the oral tradition about the happenings of the sanctuary, still very alive and spread throughout the region, there are no processions or other particular customs related to the Miracle. On the other hand, foreign people show an impressing devotion to this Miracle: every year, thousands of lay and religious pilgrims – mainly Polish, Czech, Slavic and American, but also African, Australian, and South-American – visit the sanctuary (even John Paul II visited it, when he was the Cardinal of Cracow), and some movingly confess to having moved here to be closer to Jesus. After visiting the Relics, worshippers write their feelings on a register available in the sanctuary and their emotional and moving writings are mainly a way of giving thanks to the Miracle of Lanciano for renovating their faith in the Eucharistic Miracle.

All these things show how the survival of the whole population depended on the town economy; so, the Diocleziano bridge, the path of the Transumanza (transhumance), was dedicated to the Vergine dei Raccolti (Virgin of the Harvests). Over the last 2000 years, in the Corte Anteana, right in front of the sanctuary of the Miracle, a set of architectural, secular and religious buildings have created a complex and unique setting: it’s the Ponte di Diocleziano, where there is the Basilica dedicated to s. Maria del Ponte, patron saint of the town. The building phases of the bridge intertwined with the construction of the Basilica above, causing a series of enlargements and restorations (still in progress) to meet the commercial rather than spiritual need to connect the ancient town to the plain where the exhibitions took place as well as to glorify the Madonna. During the 12th century, the Roman bridge changed its name and was dedicated to the Virgin, on account of the finding of a statue portraying the Madonna and Child, which was probably made in Lanciano in the first centuries of Christianity and hidden in a pillar of the bridge to save it from the iconoclastic persecutions and Saracen raids, mainly focused on churches and sacred images. It is slightly more than a metre high, complete in all its parts and painted with a light blue mantle with golden decorations; the Baby Jesus, held in the arms of the Virgin, holds a small bird in his left hand.