French nun’s cure deemed a miracle
Woman shed braces, wheelchair after 2008 pilorimaoe to Lourdes
BEAUVAIS, France — A nun whose recovery from decades of spinal problems was declared a miracle insists that she is “not a star” but just a “little sister” glad to be able to walk freely again.
On Sunday, Beauvais Bishop Jacques Benoit-gonin proclaimed the miracle nearly a decade after Bernadette Moriau attended a blessing of the sick ceremony at the Lourdes sanctuary in southern France. The bishop of Lourdes, Nicolas Brouwet announced the declaration during Mass at the shrine’s basilica.
Alessandro de Franciscis of the Lourdes Office of Medical Observations said Tuesday he led the investigation into her cure and is “totally convinced” that there is no medical explanation.
Moriau described to reporters how she gave up morphine and her leg brace after visiting the shrine, saying, “I am here to bear witness, but I am not here to make you believe me.”
Moriau underwent extensive studies and tests by the International Medical Committee of Lourdes. The bishop has the last word on whether to approve a reported cure as a miracle.
Moriau had four operations on her spinal column between 1968 and 1975 and was declared fully disabled in 1980. One foot was permanently twisted, requiring her to wear a brace and use a wheelchair. She took what she said were significant doses of morphine for pain.
“I never asked for a miracle,” the nun, now 79, recounted of her July 2008 pilgrimage to Lourdes.
After returning to her home convent near Beauvais and praying in the chapel, “I felt a (surge of ) well-being throughout my body, a