Bishop Jacques Benoit-Gonin of the Diocese of Beauvais in France has announced the official recognition of the 70th miracles that took place in Lourdes which involved the miraculous healing of a paralyzed nun.
Vatican Insider is reporting on the announcement which was made on February 11, the day of the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, exactly ten years after the healing took place.
The miracle involves the healing of Sister Bernadette Moriau, 70, an Oblate Franciscan of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, who had been suffering from Cauda equina syndrome since the 1960s. A rare disorder, it occurs when something compresses on the spinal nerve roots called the cauda equina (Latin for horse’s tail) which are located at the lower end of the spinal cord. If not treated immediately, it can lead to permanent paralysis of the legs.
Unfortunately, this is what happened to Sister Moriau. As Crux reports, she had four operations on her spinal column between 1968 and 1975 and was declared a full invalid in 1980. One foot was permanently twisted and she was forced to wear a brace and use a wheelchair. She was given what she described as “significant doses” of morphine for the pain.
Twenty years later, in February 2008, her doctor invited her to go on a diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes which was scheduled for July 3-7, 2008.
“I had never been there since I became ill,” Sister said in a video for the Diocese. “In the cave I felt the mysterious presence of Mary and of little Bernadette…. In no case have I ever asked for healing. I had asked for the conversion of my heart and the strength to continue my path as a sick person.”
But God had other plans for her.
After she returned to her community in Besles, near Beauvais, the healing took place.
“On July 11th, during our time of adoration in communion with Lourdes, I relived in my heart the strong moment of the blessing of the sick with the Blessed Sacrament and I really felt the presence of Jesus… At the end of the adoration, I felt a feeling of warmth in my body… I felt good.”
As Bishop Benoit-Gonin goes on to explain in the diocese’s communiqué, “Going back to her room, she felt called to get rid of her prostheses: the corset, the crutches, and stopped the neurostimulator…. She immediately started to walk without any help, in a totally autonomous way. As witness, she called her sisters who saw the change.”
Her doctor took note of the healing and presented it to the Bureau Medical Internationalde Lourdes. The case was examined by the Medical Committee at their annual meeting in 2016 and all but one doctor concluded that Sister Moriau’s healing “remains unexplained in the current state of our scientific knowledge.”
The last official miracle of Lourdes was declared in 2013 and concerned the miraculous healing of an Italian woman who was cured of severe high blood pressure and tumors in 1989.
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