Lourdes Miracle of Sister Luigina Traverso is the healing of Sister Luigina Traverso associated with Our Lady of Lourdes that the competent Catholic bishop formally recognized as miraculous on October 11, 2012. This is an affirmative ecclesiastical judgment about the cure, not merely a report that it seemed unusual.[1][2]
The cure in the official register
The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes lists Sister Luigina Traverso, from Casale Monferrato, Italy, among the cures recognized as miraculous by the Church. the official French register describes the condition as “Paralysie de la jambe gauche (lombosciatique paralysante sur méningocèle)”; the beneficiary was 30 years old; the cure is dated July 23, 1965. The wording here follows the official register and does not add a diagnosis, chronology, treatment, or circumstance that the register itself does not state.[1][2]
This case is numbered 68 in the Sanctuary's current list of 72 recognized miracles. The much larger body of reported healings at Lourdes is not interchangeable with this list. A cure belongs in the register only after the medical investigation and the competent bishop's affirmative ecclesiastical decree; an unexplained recovery that has not received that judgment does not qualify as a recognized miracle.[2]
Ecclesiastical recognition
Casale-Monferrato (Italie) recorded the formal recognition on October 11, 2012. At Lourdes, physicians investigate the diagnosis, treatment, course, permanence, and absence of an adequate medical explanation. Medical reviewers do not pronounce on divine causation. The diocesan bishop makes the properly ecclesiastical judgment, considering the medical record together with the circumstances of prayer and pilgrimage.[1][3]
The decree's object is the particular cure. It does not define a new dogma, canonize the beneficiary, authenticate every story told about the event, or imply that all illnesses will be healed at a shrine. The judgment should nevertheless be reported positively and exactly: the Church did not merely permit discussion of this cure; competent authority recognized it as miraculous after investigation.[3]
Catholic meaning
A miracle is God's work. Catholic language may speak of a cure obtained through the intercession of Our Lady of Lourdes because Mary prays as a glorified member and mother of the Church; it does not make her a separate source of divine power. The sign directs thanksgiving to the Holy Trinity, confirms confidence in prayer, and recalls Christ's compassion for the sick while remaining subordinate to the Gospel and the Sacraments.[3][4]
Bodily healing is a real good but not the whole purpose of Lourdes. The Sanctuary's ministry centers on Mass, Confession, prayer, service to sick and disabled pilgrims, conversion, and hope in the Resurrection. The small number of formally recognized cases guards both seriousness and freedom: Catholics may affirm this ecclesiastical judgment without treating miracle-seeking as a substitute for medical care or measuring a person's faith by whether a cure occurs.[3][4]
References
- 1.[1.2][1.3]Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes: recognized miraculous healings — The Sanctuary's official English register of the seventy-two cures that competent Catholic bishops have formally recognized as miraculous.
- 2.[2.2][2.3]Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes: detailed official register — The Sanctuary's official French register, supplying diagnoses, cure dates, dioceses, and dates of ecclesiastical recognition where recorded.
- 3.[3.2][3.3][3.4]Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes: recognition of a miracle — The official explanation of medical examination and the distinct judgment by the beneficiary's diocesan bishop that a cure is miraculous.
- 4.[4.2]Catechism of the Catholic Church, 156 and 547–550 — Catholic doctrine on Christ's signs, the Kingdom, divine power, and the subordination of bodily healing to liberation from sin and communion with God.