By Caroline de Sury
The list of miracles that have taken place at the French Marian shrine in Lourdes now includes, for the first time, an English-speaking soldier-patient.
Archbishop Malcolm McMahon of Liverpool, a seaside British city, officially announced on 8 December that the 71st miracle had been granted to a British soldier, wounded during World War I.
John Traynor, a soldier in the Royal Navy, was hit by machine-gun fire in 1915 in present-day Turkey. He was cured at Lourdes during a pilgrimage for his diocese in 1923.
“This is a very special case, since we simply searched the archives for the result of investigative work that had been carried out almost 100 years ago,” Fra’ Alessandro de Franciscis, the doctor in charge of the Lourdes Sanctuary’s Office of Medical Observations since 2009, told OSV News. “In reality, this healing had already been officially recognised at Lourdes in 1926,” the medical professional, who is also grand hospitaller of the Sovereign Order of Malta, said.
According to details provided by the sanctuary, Traynor had undergone numerous surgical operations after his injuries, but to no avail. He had lost the use of his right arm and suffered from severe epileptic seizures. Attempts at medical treatment had resulted in partial paralysis of his legs.
“He was living on a war pension,” de Franciscis said, “but in July 1923, he went to Lourdes on the occasion of the first pilgrimage of the Archdiocese of Liverpool, and he was cured on the third day, immediately, instantly, after being immersed in the sanctuary’s pools.”
Photo: OSV News / courtesy Lourdes Sanctuary.
St Bernadette Soubirous witnessed 18 Marian apparitions beginning on 11 February 1858, and people of her time witnessed the first physical and spiritual healing miracles after visiting the shrine or drinking or washing in the spring Our Lady pointed Bernadette to in an apparition. To date, dozens of miracles have been confirmed by the special medical commission permanently working at the shrine, which de Francisis leads.
“When he returned home to the U.K., he was examined by the doctors,” the doctor said. “They were amazed.”
“I would point out that his recovery was complete,” de Franciscis added. “Previously, he was almost paralysed in his legs, and out of condition to have children. But after his recovery, he and his wife had several children,” he stressed.
“Three doctors who were with him on the pilgrimage encouraged him to return to Lourdes to testify to his healing,” the head of Lourdes’ medical office recounted. “That is what he did in July 1926. The collegial investigation took place in Lourdes, according to the usual procedures. The conclusion was that this cure was truly inexplicable.”
Everything was properly noted by the predecessors of doctors now working in Lourdes.
“The sanctuary’s newspaper published in full, at the time, the minutes of the Office of Medical Observations doctors’ meeting, with the testimonies from the English doctors who had examined John Traynor before and after this cure.”
Because of post-war turbulence in Europe, communications between Lourdes and Liverpool regarding conclusions of the inquiry were never forwarded to the Archbishop of Liverpool.
“But this was the post-war era, and there were still organisational and communication dysfunctions at the shrine. … In general, the healings recognised by the sanctuary in the 1920s and 1930s were most often not made public until the 1950s,” the lead Lourdes doctor said.
“After his recovery, John Traynor became a member of the Hospitalité of Lourdes, where he went every year,” de Franciscis said, referring to the religious confraternity under the spiritual authority of the bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, which is active in Lourdes during the main pilgrimage season, providing people to welcome pilgrims at the sanctuary’s baths.
“He was strong and healthy, and to English and Irish Catholics, it was obvious that there had been a miracle. But the official documents attesting to his recovery in Lourdes, before and after the miracle, were forgotten,” the doctor told OSV News.
“On the occasion of the centenary of this first pilgrimage to Lourdes by the Archdiocese of Liverpool, we turned our attention back to his case,” de Franciscis explained. “We undertook a search of the archives, and found the documents. They prove beyond doubt that the Lourdes Bureau had made a definitive judgment on the unexplained nature of this cure. They are clear and unambiguous.”
In recent months, Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of Tarbes and Lourdes, was able to forward a complete dossier to the Archdiocese of Liverpool, which led its archbishop to recognize the healing as a miracle, the doctor confirmed.
Traynor, who died in 1943, is therefore the 71st recognized miraculous cure from Lourdes.
The 70th person miraculously cured is still alive, de Franciscis said. She is a French woman religious, Sister Bernadette Moriau, now over 85. Her miraculous cure was recognised in 2018, after 10 years of investigation.
“And John Traynor is the first case of healing of an English-speaking patient,” de Franciscis said. “Most of the miracles are French. There are Italians too, a Belgian and a German. But there were not any English speakers yet.”
“I am personally sensitive to this,” the doctor concluded with a smile. “I myself am Italian, born in Naples, but of an American mother, from Connecticut!”