The conversion of the substance of the Eucharistic elements into the body and blood of Christ at consecration, with only the appearances of bread and wine still remaining.
Transubstantiation
Fact of the Day
An eleventh-century bishop of Séez accidentally burned down his own cathedral during a military operation.
Quote of the Day
"I have offended God and mankind in not having laboured at my art as I ought to have done
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~ Leonardo da Vinci, speaking during his final illness to Francis I
On This Day
1846 Scottish surgeon Robert Liston was the first European to use anaesthesia during an amputation. He could amputate a leg in two and a half minutes.
1898 Scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discovered the radioactive element radium.
1937 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs', the world's first full-length animated film, premiered in the USA
1946 A tsunami caused by an undersea earthquake killed at least 1,362 and left thousands homeless in Japan.
1967 Louis Washkansky, the first man to undergo a heart transplant, died in Cape Town, South Africa, 18 days after his operation.
1988 Pan Am Flight 103 exploded as it was flying over Lockerbie, Scotland. All 243 passengers and 16 crew, and 11 residents of Lockerbie were killed