A Modern Day Lourdes Miracle

Lourdes has done it again!

The miraculous healing at the Marian shrine in Lourdes, France keeps pilgrims coming back. And in 2018 another miracle was announced.

The miracle actually occurred in 2008, but the International Medical Committee of Lourdes had to research her claims extensively. Almost a decade later the paperwork was sent to the diocese of origin after the committee found no scientific explanation for the healing. The local bishop then signed off on it and now we’re proud to inform you that the 70th Lourdes Miracle was officially announced by Bishop Jacques Benoit-Gonin of Beauvais on 11 February 2018! It’s the first official Lourdes Miracle in half a decade and it’s a good one.

It all started in 2008, when the French nun, Sister Bernadette Moriau, went on a pilgrimage to the Healing Waters of Lourdes. At the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes she partook in a blessing at the shrine, but admits that she never asked for a miracle.

You see, by that stage she had been wheelchair-bound for almost three decades. She took morphine to control the pain caused by spinal complications. But she didn’t expect to be healed completely, and yet after the blessing things started to change in a big way.

She recalls a warm sensation flooding her body during the blessing. A “healing sensation” she calls it. Then, after returning to her room, she heard a voice tell her to take off her braces and get up. After 30 years of being paralyzed, Sister Bernadette Moriau got up and walked. She didn’t need her wheelchair, braces or pain meds anymore! It was indeed a miracle!

The shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes has been a popular pilgrimage destination, especially for healing, since 1858. In February of that year, a young girl saw apparitions at the Grotto where the Lourdes shrine is now visited by thousands every year.

It is said that the girl, Bernadette Soubirous, saw visions of the Virgin Mary who told her to dig up the spring in the Grotto of Massabielle and then to drink from the water and bathe in it. At first the water was muddy, but the next day the spring ran clear.

The first Lourdes miracle occurred shortly afterwards, when Mrs Catherine Latapie’s paralyzed fingers were miraculously healed. Since then only 70 of the healings attributed to the Healing Waters of Lourdes, as the spring is now known, have been declared miraculous.

There is a very strict list that claims have to adhere to in order for them to be considered miraculous. The healing has to be instantaneous, there must be a medical history showing the progress of the illness or affliction, and there must be no scientific explanation for the healing. If all of these requirements are met the process to have the miracle declared begins.

As mentioned in the case of Sister Bernadette Moriau, this can be a lengthy process. But all these requirements just mean that the miraculous healings that occur at Lourdes are really miraculous and it gives ill pilgrims hope for their own healing.

It is rather nice that this particular miracle was declared on the World Day of the Sick and the feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes. It was the 160th anniversary of the Apparitions as well. So all in all it was a rather spectacular day.

And even though Sister Bernadette Moriau, now 79 years old, waited for ten years to hear her healing is considered a miracle, I’m sure she was just grateful to be able to walk again without pain. After all she had been wheelchair bound since 1980 and probably didn’t expect to see the day when she would be able to walk again.

If you or someone you know is in need of a miraculous cure, but you can’t make a pilgrimage to Lourdes, why not visit our virtual Lourdes shrine? Here, the Healing Waters of Lourdes will listen to your concern and you will have the chance to ask for healing.

As you have read from the story of the latest Miracle Healing at Lourdes you don’t have to ask for much, the Lady of Lourdes is generous in her healing. So visit our virtual Lourdes Shrine and ask the Virgin Mary for a healing blessing today!