From the time of the
Blessed Mother’s first apparition to Bernadette Soubirous, the water
from the Lourdes Grotto has been a source of miraculous healings, both
for those who have visited the Grotto and for those who used the water
in remote places. Since the time of Bernadette, more than 7,000
miraculous cures have been reported to the Lourdes Medical Bureau by
pilgrims who have visited Lourdes (which does not include miracles that
have taken place outside of Lourdes).
There were so many
purported cures associated with the water and Grotto of Lourdes that
the Catholic Church decided to set up the Lourdes Medical Bureau to be
constituted by and under the leadership of physicians and scientists
alone. The objective of the Bureau is to render a judgment that a
particular cure was near instantaneous, efficacious throughout the
remainder of life, and in all other ways, scientifically inexplicable.
The Bureau is constituted of 20 physicians and scientists. Its records
are open to any physician or scientist who wants to make their own
investigation or challenge to any particular case recognized as
“miraculous.”
Since 1883, only 69
cases have been recognized as “miraculous” according to the
strict standards of the Bureau. But this does not mean that the 7,000
other cures were not miraculous by other standards. These cases simply
cannot be shown to be completely scientifically inexplicable – though
their occurrence could be truly extraordinary and possibly, or
even probably, miraculous.
The 69 cases approved by
the Lourdes Medical Bureau have been inspected by large numbers of
physicians and scientists, and the vast majority of them have been shown
to be permanent and inexplicable cures. A list of cures can be found here.
One of the most
significant cases was the healing of Marie Bailly. Her case was
witnessed by Dr. Alexis Carrell, and it eventually brought about his
conversion.
The miracle of Marie Bailly
In 1902 a physician
friend of Dr. Carrell invited him to help take care of sick
patients being transported on a train from Lyons to Lourdes. Carrell, at
that time, was an agnostic who did not believe in miracles, but
consented to help out, not only because of friendship, but also
an interest in what natural causes might be allowing such quick healings
as those taking place at Lourdes.
On the train, he
encountered Marie Bailly, who was suffering from acute
tuberculous peritonitis; her abdomen was considerably distended with
large hard masses. Though Marie Bailly was half-conscious, Carrell
believed that she would pass away quite quickly after arriving at
Lourdes – if not before. Other physicians on the train agreed with this
diagnosis.
When the train arrived
at Lourdes, Marie was taken to the Grotto, where three pitchers of water
were poured over her distended abdomen. After the first pour, she felt a
searing pain, but after the second pour, it was lessened, and after the
third pour, she experienced a pleasant sensation. Her stomach began to
flatten and her pulse returned to normal.
Carrel was standing
behind Marie (along with other physicians) taking notes as the water was
poured over her abdomen, and wrote: “The enormously distended and very
hard abdomen began to flatten and within 30 minutes it had completely
disappeared. No discharge whatsoever was observed from the body.”
Marie then sat up in
bed, had dinner (without vomiting), and got out of bed on her own and
dressed herself the next day. She then boarded the train, riding on the
hard benches, and arrived in Lyons refreshed. Carrel was still
interested in her psychological and physical condition, and so asked
that she be monitored by a psychiatrist and a physician for four months.
After that, Marie joined
the Sisters of Charity – to work with the sick and the poor in a
very strenuous life – and died in 1937 at the age of 58.
Carrel’s conversion
When Carrel witnessed
this exceedingly rapid and medically inexplicable event, he believed he
had seen something like a miracle, but it was difficult for him to part
with his former skeptical agnosticism – so he did not yet return to the
Catholic faith of his childhood.
Furthermore,
he wanted to avoid being a medical witness to a miraculous event
because he knew that if it became public it would ruin his career at the
medical faculty at Lyons.
Nevertheless, Marie
Bailly’s cure seemed so evidently miraculous (being so rapid, complete,
and inexplicable) that it became public in the news media in France and
throughout the world. Reporters indicated that Carrel did not think the
cure was a miracle, which forced Carrel to write a public reply stating
that one side (made up of some believers) was jumping to a
miraculous conclusion too rapidly and the other side (the medical
community) had unjustifiably refused to look at facts that appeared to
be miraculous.
As Carrel feared, his
advocacy of the possibility of Bailly’s miraculous cure led to an end of
his career at the medical faculty of Lyons, which ironically had a very
good effect on his future – because it led him to the University of
Chicago and then to the Rockefeller University. In 1912, he received the
Nobel Prize for his work in vascular anastomosis.
Carrel returned to
Lourdes many times, and on one occasion, witnessed a second miracle –
the instantaneous cure of an 18-month-old blind boy.
Despite these two
miracles, Carrel could not bring himself to conclusively affirm the
reality of miracles until 1942, when Carrel announced that he believed
in God, the immortality of the soul, and the teachings of the Catholic
Church.
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This article is an edited excerpt from Fr. Robert Spitzer’s work, Contemporary, Scientifically Validated Miracles Associated with Blessed Mary, Saints and the Holy Eucharist originally published by Magis Center, republished with permission. Click here for the full article by Fr. Spitzer.