After Henry and Paula Kones’ Orlando, Florida, church burned down last year, they were devastated for their small parish, but were given a sense of hope in the aftermath.
Despite the fire being concentrated on the sanctuary, with both the altar and the tabernacle being incinerated, a sole Eucharistic Host, covered under the ash, survived the blaze.
The Eucharist was, and still is, in a crystal case called a luna — used for insertion in a monstrance — that was badly scorched and blackened by the flames.
Speaking to the Register, the married couple described the survival of the Host at Incarnation Catholic Church as “astounding.”
“Whenever you have some tragedy in life, you always get some degree of consolation from God,” Henry, 59, said. “And for the parish, many of us believe that the surviving Eucharist was the consolation grace that we got.”
For Paula, 50, the survival of the Eucharist was a message from the Lord amid the grief: “I’m still here, and I’m not going anywhere.”
The church’s pastor, Father William Holiday, told the Register that the surviving Host is a “work of God’s extraordinary providence,” but stopped short of calling it a miracle.
A miracle is when something occurs in which there is no natural explanation, Father Holiday said, and that couldn’t be concluded here.
He added that “there could be all kinds of natural explanations as to why [the Eucharist survived].”
“But it is undoubtedly a work of God’s extraordinary providence, particularly during this time when we’re trying to talk about Eucharistic renewal,” he said.
A Close-Knit Parish
Despite the fire — which is still being investigated by arson law enforcement officials — the loss of the church building is not the loss of the parish, sacraments, nor the community, the Koneses said.
Henry described the parish as “very, very, very tightly knit,” noting that parishioners often go to dinner together and attend each other’s birthdays, baptisms and weddings.
The couple even runs a weekly event called “Catholics Night Out,” where, after the vigil Mass on Saturday night, parishioners will get dinner together.
Without a physical church building, those worship and social activities have continued with frequency.
“The building is the only thing that’s missing,” Paula said, with her husband adding that “our devotion to God reigns supreme.”
The Koneses even helped to create sets of post cards with photos of the surviving Host on them as a fundraising effort for a new church. They’ve sold around 100 so far.
Those plans for a new church are already underway, as Father Holiday has started fundraising and is aiming at a goal of $5 million. Donations are being collected through the parish’s website here.
In addition, Paula’s father, Fabio Serrano, who is a professional photographer, took pictures of the surviving Host and with the help of other parishioners created a framed display of the Eucharist at the entrance of the church hall.
“The display is a testimony to God’s extraordinary providence and an encouragement as to the resilience of his people,” Paula said.
The Bishop Visits
When Father Holiday told his superior, Bishop Steven Lopes of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, about the surviving Host in the luna, Bishop Lopes told the priest to wait to open it until he arrived at the parish about one week after the fire, according to Father Holiday.
Out of his “extraordinary pastoral concern,” Bishop Lopes planned to fly in from the ordinariate’s headquarters in Houston to celebrate two Masses at the parish’s adjacent hall the following weekend, Father Holiday explained.
When Bishop Lopes arrived at the parish July 1, 2023, he opened the luna to examine the Host with Father Holiday, the priest said.
The luna was blackened from the fire, but Father Holiday said that the Host was not.
“There was some moisture. You could tell that the moisture had seeped in, but the Host itself was completely intact,” Father Holiday said.
“Due to obvious moisture intrusion, it has taken on a more off-white/gray hue, and the crystal of the luna is scorched. The black becomes pronounced only in the monstrance,” he wrote in an email.
The Register reached out to the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter for comment on if an investigation of a possible Eucharistic miracle is ongoing, or if it has officially been ruled out.
No response was given.
According to a Facebook group for ordinariate members in Savannah, Georgia, Bishop Lopes had released a statement about five days after the fire announcing fundraising efforts to support Incarnation church.
“Despite the fire damage to the church building, Mass was celebrated Sunday morning in the hall with standing-room-only attendance. Please pray for Fr. Holiday, Fr. McCrimmon, and the faithful of Incarnation,” the statement said.
Relic Found
Along with the Eucharistic Host, Father Holiday discovered another of the church’s most sacred objects in the debris after the fire.
While sifting through the ash and remains near the altar, he found the parish’s first-class bone-relic of St. Maria Goretti. The relic was cased in a reliquary that wasn’t found, but the bone itself survived. It was originally housed on the reredos behind the altar.
“Very little could be salvaged,” Father Holiday said, “but it was cool that those things that were of the utmost importance were salvaged.”
Adoration Is ‘Emotional’
Immediately after Father Holiday first discovered the Eucharist, he took the Host and brought it to the parish hall in his office, which is adjacent from the church.
He cleaned off the top of a bookshelf, placed the Blessed Sacrament on it, and put a candle next to it, indicating the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.
“And that was where it stayed for a few weeks,” he said, adding that his office was the most secure place on the property for the Host.
The parish hall became the temporary worship space for Mass, and parishioners would visit Father Holiday’s office to adore the Eucharist while it was exposed.
“I would come in my office, and get here for work, and there would be like seven or eight people kneeling in front of the bookcase where the Blessed Sacrament was,” he said.
Father Holiday commended the piety of his parishioners, saying that “I could ask for none better.”
Eventually, a new tabernacle was set up in the parish hall, and Bishop Lopes gave permission to reserve the sacrament in that space.
The hall has slowly transformed from a function room with foldable chairs to a make-shift church with pews, a tabernacle, altar and a confessional that was donated. Eucharistic adoration with the same Host and scorched luna is now held in the hall.
Speaking with the Register, another parishioner, Luis Roman, said that adoring the surviving Eucharistic Host with the burns on the luna is “emotional.”
Roman, 45, called the survival of the Host a “miraculous sign or a message from heaven.”
“Adoring the Host in that situation, in the way he was looking, for me, it was a reminder [of Jesus saying]: ‘Look what I underwent for you. I receive the danger of evil all the time. I receive all the spitting and the blasphemous comments and the hate for you. Why are you complaining?’” he said.
Roman also said it is a reminder that the physical beauty of the church is “not the most important thing”; rather, “he is,” referring to Christ.
