Walldürn, 1330

In 1330, the parish priest Heinrich Otto of Walldürn was carrying the consecrated wine to a sick parishioner when he stumbled near the edge of the forest. The chalice spilled, and the Precious Blood stained the corporal, the linen cloth used on the altar during Mass. According to the account, the priest, troubled by what had happened, folded the corporal and placed it in the tabernacle rather than continuing to the sick person.

When the corporal was later unfolded, the blood stains were found to have formed an image recognized as the Man of Sorrows, Christ crowned with thorns and bearing the wounds of the Passion. The cloth was eventually enshrined at the pilgrimage church of Saint George in Walldürn.

The miracle became the basis for a centuries-long pilgrimage tradition in the Odenwald region. The Heilig-Blut-Altar (Holy Blood Altar), a late medieval retable dating to the late fifteenth century, houses the corporal behind painted shutters. The pilgrimage continues to the present day, with the annual Blutritt (Blood Ride) procession on Corpus Christi.

No formal decree of supernatural origin has been located for this entry. The account is included on the basis of its long-standing historical devotion and its exhibition source. The corporal remains available for public veneration at the pilgrimage church.