Italian nun's 1965 healing certified
by Lourdes medical committee -
Would be 68th official Lourdes miracle
by Andrea Tornielli
Translated from
March 3, 2012
VATICAN CITY - The letter from Lourdes was sent on February 10, 2012, eve of the 154th anniversary of the first Marian apparition to Bernadette Soubirous.
Mons. Jacques Terrier, Bishop of Tarbes-Lourdes who has since retired, wrote the Bishop of Casale Monferrato in Italy, Mons. Alceste Catella, informing him that the Medical Bureau of Lourdes - the international medical committee which scientifically examines reported miraculous healings - had decided that the healing of Salesian Sister Luigina Traverso was inexplainable by present scientific knowledge.
[This would be the 68th official miracle attributed to Lourdes. The 67th miracle was officially recognized in November 2995. Casale Monferrato is a town near Turin.]
Right, Suor Luigina and Mons. Catella.
The scientific verification process In the case of Sr. Luigina, who is the financial administrator of the Instituto San Giuseppe in San Salvatore Monferrato, was thus concluded, and the next step was for Mons. Catella to make a formal statement on the miraculous healing.
Suor Luigina, born in Novi Ligure in 1934, took part in a pilgrimage to Lourdes with the Oftal (an association that brings sick pilgrims to Lourdes) in July 1965. The president of the Casal Monferrato branch of Oftal said Suor Luigina was afflicted with "paralyzing lumbar sciatica with the spinal vertebra in meningocele" (a stype of spina bifida).
She was a stretcher patient, who had not walked for a long time, and had undergone multiple spinal operations without success. Shortly before leaving for Lourdes, a medical examination reported that "Patient is suffering generally, pale and hypotensive. A fresh surgical scar is painful to pressure. Rigidity and contraction of the lumbo-sacral region of the spine. Reduced mobility of the feet due to paralysis of the anterior tibial muscles; of the extensor muscles of the big toe, and the common extensor muscles of the other toes. Insufficiency of the sural triceps and posterior tibia. Inert fibulae. Bedsores due to being bedridden".
In Lourdes, Suor Luigina immersed herself in the pools
[fed by the spring that Bernadette had 'activated' in the grotto of Massabielle at the behest of the apparition in 1868].
On July 23, 1965, during the daily Eucharistic procession, the nun told her Oftal caretakers that at the passage of the celebrant bearing the Sacrament, she felt "a strong heat penetrating her body and a desire to get up and walk". She said she felt better and noted "the sudden recovery of motion in her feet and the disappearance of pain".
Brought back to her own room, in the presence of the doctor accompanying the Tortona pilgrims, Danilo Cebrelli, and the bishop's representative, Mon. Lorenzo Ferrarazzo, Suor Luigina sat up on her bed and asked to receive a blessing from the monsignor, who said: "Suor Luigina, if you wish to receive the blessing, get up and kneel down to pray". She promptly obeyed, left her bed, and knelt down.
By the time the pilgrims returned to Tortona, Suor Luigina felt herself completely healed. On July 27, 1865, a doctor, Prof. Claudio Rinaldi, attested: "Good overall condition. Normal spine configuration, in no pain, surgical scar also painless, absence of any segemental muscular contraction or rigidity. Inferior limbs completely mobile with equal and symmetrical strength, and even fine movements of the extensor of the big toes were possible. Negative Laseque test (test for presence of herniated spinal disc), prompt reflexes of the patella and Achilles heel. Normal (muscle) sensitivity".
Since then, she has not experienced any manifestation of the pathology that had made her an invalid.
In July 2010, 45 years after the event and paperwork was initially filed, the case of Suor Luigina was examined by the Medical Bureau at Lourdes, on the occasion of the Oftal pilgrimage from Tortona that year. The unanimous verdict was "complete and permanent healing".
Mons. Catella, asked whether this was a miracle, replied: "We cannot affirm it yet because now the Church must certify it. But we do have an unimpeachable scientific basis to reach such a certainty. It is a great joy to be able to convey this information (the letter from Lourdes), which gives me the opportunity to renew my invitation for greater participation in the diocesan pilgrimages - for the faithful to go to Lourdes to give thanks to Mary. a mother who is always attentive to her children's supplications".
"Our local Oftal and our diocese of Casale Monferrato", said Oftal diocesan president Alberto Busto, "once again look to Mary with loving gratitude. This follows the extraordinary healing on June 2, 1950, of Evasio Ganora, also a Casale citizen, which was officially acknowledged as a miracle in 1955. So far, six Italians are among the certified miracles of Lourdes".
The last miracle of Lourdes that was certified medically and by the Church was in November 2005 - the 67th.
www.lourdes-france.org/index.php?goto_centre=ru&contexte=en&id=1342&id_rubri...
A good overview of Lourdes, the Marian apparitions and the phenomenon of the world's second largest Marian shrine was posted by the English service of Vatican Radio last Feb. 11, 154th anniversary of the first apparition:
www.radiovaticana.org/in2/articolo.asp?c=564638
MASSABIELLE: THE GROTTO OF THE APPARITIONS
The only known photograph of Bernadette Soubirous at the grotto was taken three years after the apparitions. Right, the marker describing the apparitions, which reads (in translation):
"The year of grace 1858: In the gap in the rock where the statue is, the Blessed Virgin appeared to Bernadette 18 times: on February 11 and 14; every day except two between Feb. 18-March 4, on March 28, April 7 and July 10. The Blessed Virgin told the child on February 18: "Would you come here for the next 15 days? I do not promise to make you happy in this The world but in the next". The virgin told her during those 15 days: "Pray for sinners. Kiss the earth for sinners... Penitence, penitence, penitence...Go tell the priests to have a chapel built here... I want people to come in procession... Go drink at the fountain and wash yourself... Go eat the weeds there.. On March 25, the Virgin said: "I AM THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION".