The Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration are delighted to announce that the Vatican is attributing the miraculous cure of a four year-old Colorado boy of an acute viral infection to the intercession of their foundress, Mother Maria Theresia Bonzel, thus opening the way for her beatification.
According to a press release from the sisters who are located at Mount St. Francis in Colorado Springs, Pope Francis declared Mother Bonzel blessed on March 27, 2013, after the healing of Luke Burgie was declared miraculous.
The story of Luke’s healing began in January of 1999 when his mother, Jan Burgie, called the sisters to ask for prayers for her then four year-old son. Luke was suffering from severe/chronic diarrhea since September of 1998 and doctors were still unable to determine the cause of the problem. After five months, the boy was beginning to waste away.
“Nobody could really diagnose what the cause of it was,” Sister Clarice Gentrup, the congregation’s vicar general, told the Catholic News Agency. “They tried to heal him, but nothing helped. He was losing weight, and a little four-year-old doesn’t have a lot of weight to lose.”
The sisters sent several prayer cards of Mother Maria Theresia to Mrs. Burgie and they all began to pray the novena every morning for Luke’s recovery.
On February 22, 1999, less than a month after they began to pray the novena, Luke’s diarrhea was suddenly gone.
“He just got up from the couch and began playing like a normal happy kid,” Mrs. Burgie said.
At the time, Luke simply pronounced, “Jesus healed me.”
When the then Superior General, Sr. Mediatrix Nies, of Olpe, Germany, was told of this possible miracle, she petitioned Dr. Andrea Ambrosi, Postulator and Vatican Attorney, in Rome to consider it as “the” miracle necessary for Beatification, a process that had begun in 1961.
In accord with the request of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in the Vatican in Rome, Luke Burgie had many doctor appointments from July 13, 2009 until September 23, 2011. Tests and more tests were performed in both Colorado Springs and Denver Children’s Hospital, all of which proved he was still healthy.
On January 15, 2013, the Commission of Cardinals unanimously agreed to this miracle of Luke’s healing for the Beatification of Mother Maria Theresia Bonzel.
Mother Bonzel was born Regina Christine Wilhelmine Bonzel in 1830 in Olpe, Germany and had developed an intense prayer life, with particular devotion to the Eucharist, at an early age. As she grew, she became more and more aware of the number of impoverished children in Germany and eventually formed a group of companions to care for them. The bishop asked her to form a Congregation, which became the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration. Mother Bonzel died in 1905. At the present time, the sisters are ministering in Germany, the United States, the Philippines and Brazil.
Mother Bonzel’s motto in life was “All in God’s will. He leads; I follow.”
PRAYER FOR THE INTERCESSION OF MOTHER BONZEL:
Loving Father, by your great grace, you have chosen Mother Maria Theresia Bonzel as your spouse, and have imparted to her heart an ardent love for you in the Blessed Sacrament. You have made her a true disciple of St. Francis in the practice of works of charity and all other virtues, especially humility, patience and penance.
Grant that we, too, will grow in our love for the Eucharist, so that like Mother Maria Theresia, we can serve you, your Church, and all souls with joy and simple faith. Let us bring the light of Christ to all those around us, especially those in most need.
Grant us, by her intercession, and according to Your holy will, the request I now make . . . so that her heroic sanctity may be recognized in the whole Church. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. With Ecclesiastical approval
Please report any prayers answered to St. Francis Provincialate, PO Box 766, Mishawaka, IN 46546
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