Since 1858 the Lourdes Medical Bureau has documented more than 7,000 cures and recognised 72 as miraculous. Beyond Lourdes, every canonization in the modern Church rests on a medically inexplicable healing.
St. Peregrine's Cancer Cured Before the Crucifix
The Servite friar Peregrine Laziosi developed a cancer on his right foot so severe that amputation was scheduled for the following morning. He spent the night in prayer before the crucifix in the chapter house; in the vision granted him, Christ reached down from the Cross and touched the foot. He woke healed. He was canonized in 1726 and is the patron of cancer patients.
Catherine Latapie — the first recognised Lourdes cure
Two-and-a-half weeks after Bernadette's first apparition, Catherine Latapie — a 38-year-old farm woman whose right arm had been paralysed for two years — bathed in the new spring and was instantly cured. The first formally recognised Lourdes miracle.
Justine Bouhort — the dying child in the spring
A two-year-old child of Lourdes, dying of post-cholera marasmus, was plunged by her despairing mother into the icy spring of the new grotto. She was instantly restored. Bernadette herself, then 14, knew the family.
Louis Bouriette — blindness cured at the new spring
A 54-year-old quarryman, blind in his right eye since a slate-quarry explosion 19 years earlier, washed his eye with water from the new spring and was instantly cured. One of the seven cures of the 1862 episcopal decree.
Henri Busquet — tubercular sores at Lourdes
A teenager from Nay covered in suppurating tubercular sores on his neck — scrofula that had resisted all treatment — was instantly cured after washing the sores with Lourdes water. One of the seven cures of the 1862 episcopal decree.
Madeleine Rizan — twenty-four years of hemiplegia
A 58-year-old widow of Nay had been paralysed on her left side for 24 years following a stroke. Her daughter brought her a bottle of the new Lourdes water; she drank it and was instantly cured. The last of the 1862 episcopal seven.
Marie Moreau — eye disease healed at Tartas
A 17-year-old from the Landes town of Tartas suffered from a serious progressive eye condition that had brought her near to blindness. She slept overnight with a Lourdes-water-soaked compress and woke healed. Among the 1862 seven.
Blaisette Cazenave — chronic ophthalmia healed at Lourdes
A 50-year-old woman of Lourdes had suffered for years from a chronic suppurating ophthalmia of both eyes that had nearly destroyed her sight. She washed at the spring and was instantly cured. The third of the seven cures of the 1862 episcopal decree.
The Cure of Pierre De Rudder at Oostakker
A Belgian farmhand whose left leg had been shattered eight years earlier — bones never knitted, the foot dangling — was instantly cured at the Belgian replica of the Lourdes grotto. Examined for decades, his case became a benchmark of miraculous healing.
Joachime Dehant — twelve years of gangrenous ulcer
A Belgian woman of 29 with a gangrenous, suppurating ulcer of the right calf for twelve years — through which the bone was visible — was completely healed in the baths at Lourdes. Recognised in 1908 by the Bishop of Namur.
Élisa Seisson — cardiac hypertrophy cured at the baths
A 27-year-old Frenchwoman with severe cardiac hypertrophy, dyspnea on the slightest exertion, and gross peripheral oedema — given a fatal prognosis — was instantly cured at the Lourdes baths in 1882. The 12th cure on the official Lourdes list.
Sister Eugénie — uterine prolapse and gastric crises
A French religious sister with severe uterine prolapse and recurrent vomiting that had reduced her near death was instantly cured at the Lourdes baths in 1883. The 13th cure on the official list.
Sister Julienne — chronic knee disease
A 35-year-old French Daughter of Wisdom from Bordeaux suffering for years from a chronic effusion and degenerative disease of the right knee was instantly cured at the Lourdes baths in 1889. The 14th cure on the official list.
Amélie Chagnon — tubercular knee and foot
A 17-year-old French girl from Poitiers with tubercular caries of the knee and ankle, immobilised for years in plaster, was cured at the Lourdes baths in 1891. The 15th cure on the official list.
Clémentine Trouvé — gangrenous foot at Lourdes
A 14-year-old French girl from Rouillé with osteoperiostitis of the right foot — bone visible at the bottom of a draining wound — was completely cured at the baths in 1891. The 16th cure on the official list.
Marie Lemarchand — facial lupus that confounded Zola
An 18-year-old from Caen with advanced lupus vulgaris destroying the right side of her face, two tubercular leg ulcers, and pulmonary tuberculosis was instantly cured at the baths. Émile Zola, present at Lourdes that summer, saw her before and after, and could not deny what he had seen.
Marie Lebranchu — pulmonary tuberculosis cured at the baths
A 35-year-old French laundress dying of advanced pulmonary tuberculosis was cured at the Lourdes baths on the same pilgrimage that produced the cure of Marie Lemarchand. Émile Zola saw her case too.
Elisa Lesage — tubercular hip disease
A French girl of 18 with tubercular coxalgia (TB of the hip) that had immobilised her for years was cured at the baths on the same August 1892 pilgrimage. The 18th cure on the official list.
Sister Joséphine-Marie — chronic enteritis
A French religious with severe chronic enteritis that had reduced her to a near-skeletal state was instantly cured at the Lourdes baths in 1894. The 20th cure on the official list.
Aurélie Huprelle — pulmonary tuberculosis at Lourdes
A 26-year-old Frenchwoman with advanced pulmonary tuberculosis — hemoptysis, fever, cachexia — was cured at the Lourdes baths in 1895. The 21st cure on the official list.
Esther Brachmann — tubercular peritonitis
A 15-year-old French girl from Lyon with tubercular peritonitis, fistulae, and severe cachexia was cured at the baths in 1896. The 22nd cure on the official list.
Jeanne Tulasne — Pott's disease
A 20-year-old Frenchwoman with Pott's disease (tubercular spondylitis) and a marked kyphosis, immobilised for years in a plaster shell, was cured at the baths in 1897. The 23rd cure on the official list.
Clémentine Malot — pulmonary tuberculosis
A 25-year-old Frenchwoman from Pas-de-Calais, terminal with pulmonary tuberculosis, was cured at the baths in 1898. The 24th cure on the official list.
Rose François — chronic ulcer of the arm
A 36-year-old Frenchwoman with a chronic non-healing ulcer of the arm was cured at the baths in 1899. The 25th cure on the official list.
Sister Maximilien — uterine fibroma
A French religious sister with a very large uterine fibroma and severe associated anaemia was instantly cured at the baths in 1900. The 26th cure on the official list.
Marie Lebranchu (second cure) — late tubercular complication
A French laywoman (precise identity in dispute among Lourdes Medical Bureau sources of the period) with a late tubercular complication of the pulmonary system was cured at the Lourdes baths in the first decade of the 20th century — recognised on the official Lourdes list under one of several variant identifications.
Gabriel Gargam — the dying postal clerk
A French postal clerk paralysed from the waist down by a train crash in 1899 and tube-fed for over two years was brought to Lourdes on a stretcher in 1901, the very point of death. Cured instantaneously at the Blessed Sacrament procession.
Marie Savoye — mitral valve heart disease
A 24-year-old Frenchwoman with advanced rheumatic mitral valve disease and the pulmonary oedema of Bouillaud's disease was cured at the baths in 1901. The 27th cure on the official list.
Marie Bailly — the cure that converted Alexis Carrel
A young Frenchwoman dying of tuberculous peritonitis was cured at the Grotto under the observation of Dr. Alexis Carrel — a young agnostic surgeon who would win the 1912 Nobel Prize in Medicine. The cure broke Carrel's secular materialism.
Johanna Bezenac — chronic ulcerative dermatitis
A French girl with a severe chronic ulcerative dermatitis and recurrent ophthalmia was cured at Lourdes in 1904.
Sister Saint-Hilaire — chronic gastrointestinal disease
A French religious sister (Marie Petit) from a teaching congregation of the Lyon region, suffering for years from a severe chronic gastrointestinal disease that had reduced her to cachexia, was cured at the Lourdes baths in 1904.
Sister Sainte-Béatrix — ovarian peritonitis
A French religious sister (Marie Pelletier) of the Lyon region, suffering from advanced ovarian peritonitis judged terminal, was cured at the Lourdes baths on the same August 1904 pilgrimage that brought the cure of Sister Saint-Hilaire.
Sister Marie-Maxime — laryngeal-tracheal disease
A French religious sister with advanced laryngeal-tracheal ulceration and chronic suffocating cough was cured at Lourdes during the May 1904 national pilgrimage.
The Healings of Brother André at Saint Joseph's Oratory
A humble Quebec lay-brother porter — barely able to read, in poor health himself — became the centre of one of the great healing ministries in North America. From the small wooden chapel he built on Mount Royal in 1904 grew the largest church in Canada; tens of thousands of cures have been attributed to his intercession with St. Joseph, many through anointing with oil from the votive lamp before the saint's statue, and the votive chapel holds a wall of nearly two thousand abandoned crutches and braces.
Marie-Thérèse Noblet — spinal Pott's disease
A 16-year-old French girl with Pott's disease (TB of the spine) producing a severe kyphosis was cured at Lourdes in 1905. She went on to become a missionary in Papua New Guinea where she was venerated as a saintly figure.
Cécile Douville de Franssu — tubercular peritonitis
A 22-year-old Frenchwoman of the Northern French nobility with terminal tubercular peritonitis was cured at the Lourdes baths in 1905. The 33rd cure on the official list.
Antonia Moulin — coxalgia and ulcerative leg
A French woman with tubercular coxalgia and a chronic ulcerative wound of the leg was cured at the Lourdes baths in 1907.
Marie Borel — discharging intestinal fistulae
A French religious with multiple discharging intestinal fistulae following operations for tubercular peritonitis was instantly cured at the baths in 1907.
Marie Biré — sight returns at the Blessed Sacrament procession
A 41-year-old French peasant from the Vendée, blind for two years from optic-nerve atrophy with examined-and-documented degenerated optic discs, regained her sight instantly as the Blessed Sacrament passed her stretcher in procession. Recognised in 1908 by the Bishop of Luçon.
Virginie Haudebourg — chronic nephritis
A French woman with chronic nephritis and severe systemic oedema was cured at Lourdes in 1908.
Aimée Allope — peritonitis with intestinal occlusion
A French woman with peritonitis complicated by intestinal occlusion was instantly cured at the Lourdes baths in 1908.
Marie Mabille — pulmonary tuberculosis
A French laywoman with advanced pulmonary tuberculosis was cured at the Lourdes baths in 1908 — one of several cures of the great Pius X 1908 pilgrimage cluster.
Juliette Orion — pulmonary congestion of cardiac origin
A French woman with severe rheumatic mitral disease and chronic pulmonary congestion was cured at the Lourdes baths in 1910.
Marie Fabre — visceral ptosis
A French woman with severe visceral ptosis (uterine prolapse with intestinal displacement) and chronic vomiting was cured at the Lourdes baths in 1911.
The Healing of Peter Smith — Cabrini's Canonization Miracle
A newborn at Mother Cabrini's Columbus Hospital was blinded by excess silver nitrate eye drops. The Cabrini sisters laid a relic on him and prayed; his sight returned completely. He grew up to become a Catholic priest, and his healing carried Cabrini's 1946 canonization.
The Cure of John Traynor at Lourdes
British Royal Marine, paralysed in his legs and right arm by a head wound at Gallipoli (1915), cured instantaneously at Lourdes. Returned to England, worked as a coal-haulier and father of six until 1943.
Henriette Bressolles — Pott's disease at Lourdes
A 26-year-old Frenchwoman from Nice with Pott's disease (tubercular spondylitis) producing a severe paraplegia was cured at the Lourdes baths in 1924. The 36th cure on the official list.
Lydia Brosse — extensive tubercular abscesses
A 41-year-old Frenchwoman with extensive tubercular abscesses of the neck, axilla, and back — confined to bed in extremis — was cured at the Lourdes baths in 1930. The 39th cure on the official list.
Louise Jamain — pulmonary and intestinal tuberculosis
A 28-year-old Frenchwoman in the terminal phase of pulmonary, intestinal, and peritoneal tuberculosis was cured at Lourdes in 1937. The 41st cure on the official list.
Francis Pascal — a child blind and paralysed from meningitis
A three-year-old boy from Beaucaire (Provence), left blind and paralysed from the waist down by tubercular meningitis, was completely cured in the baths at Lourdes in 1938. Recognised in 1949 as the 44th miraculous Lourdes cure.
Gabrielle Clauzel — rheumatic spondylitis
A 42-year-old Frenchwoman with severe rheumatic spondylitis (ankylosing spondylitis) producing complete spinal fusion was cured at Lourdes in 1943. The 43rd cure on the official list.
Yvonne Fournier — post-traumatic arm paralysis
A 22-year-old Frenchwoman with post-traumatic paralysis and atrophy of the left arm following a railway accident was cured at Lourdes in 1945. The 45th cure on the official list.
Rose Martin — uterine cancer cured at the baths
A 45-year-old Frenchwoman dying of inoperable uterine cancer with constant hemorrhage and severe pelvic pain was completely cured at the Lourdes baths in 1947. Recognised in 1949 as the 47th miraculous Lourdes cure.
Jeanne Gestas — chronic enterocolitis with intestinal occlusion
A French woman with chronic enterocolitis complicated by recurrent intestinal occlusion and pelvic adhesions was cured at Lourdes in 1947. The 48th cure on the official list.
Marie-Thérèse Canin — Pott's disease
A 37-year-old Frenchwoman from Marseille with advanced Pott's disease (TB of the spine) and a large paraspinal abscess was cured at Lourdes in 1947. The 49th cure on the official list.
Edeltraud Fulda — Addison's Disease at Lourdes
Austrian Edeltraud Fulda, a former dancer with terminal Addison's disease, was cured at Lourdes in 1948 — at a time when Addison's was 100% fatal without lifelong cortisone (then unavailable in Europe).
Jeanne Fretel — tubercular peritonitis cured by the Blessed Sacrament
A 34-year-old Frenchwoman from Rennes, dying of advanced tubercular peritonitis with a chronic pelvic abscess, was instantly cured when the monstrance was placed against her abdomen by the celebrant of the Mass in the hospital ward. Recognised in 1950 as the 50th cure.
Maddalena Carini — tubercular peritonitis
A 30-year-old Italian woman with terminal tubercular peritonitis, pleurisy, and Addison's-like adrenal insufficiency was cured at Lourdes in 1948. The 51st cure on the official list.
Evasio Ganora — Hodgkin's disease
An Italian man dying of Hodgkin's disease with gross adenopathy and fever was cured at Lourdes in 1950. The 52nd cure on the official list.
Paul Pellegrin — chronic suppurating fistulae of the hip
A French man with chronic post-traumatic osteomyelitis of the right hip and persistent discharging fistulae since World War II was cured at Lourdes in 1950. The 54th cure on the official list.
Anna Santaniello — Bouillaud's heart disease
An Italian woman dying of advanced rheumatic heart disease (Bouillaud's disease) was instantly cured at the baths of Lourdes in 1952. Recognised in 2005 as the 67th formally approved cure.
Alice Couteault — multiple sclerosis
A 34-year-old Frenchwoman from Poitiers with disseminated multiple sclerosis was cured at the Lourdes baths in 1952. The 55th cure on the official list.
Marie Bigot — arachnoiditis cured in two pilgrimages
A French textile worker from La Richardais suffering for years from posterior-fossa arachnoiditis with deafness, blindness in one eye, and partial paralysis was cured in two stages — deafness restored 1953, remainder 1954. Recognised in 1956 as the 56th cure.
Ginette Nouvel — Budd-Chiari syndrome
A 26-year-old Frenchwoman from Carmaux with Budd-Chiari syndrome (hepatic vein thrombosis) — massive ascites, hepatomegaly, and a prognosis of weeks — was cured at the baths in 1954. Recognised in 1963 as the 58th cure.
Elisa Aloi — Pott's disease of the knee
A 27-year-old Sicilian woman with tubercular osteoarthritis of the right knee, four discharging fistulae and ten years of disease was cured at the Lourdes baths in 1958. Recognised in 1965 as the 60th cure.
Juliette Tamburini — femoral osteoperiostitis with hemorrhage
A 22-year-old Frenchwoman from Marseille suffering since childhood from chronic femoral osteoperiostitis with discharging fistulae and life-threatening hemorrhages was cured at Lourdes in 1959. Recognised in 1965 as the 61st cure.
The Cure of Vittorio Micheli at Lourdes
Italian soldier whose left hip had been destroyed by sarcoma — the femur disconnected from the pelvis. After bathing at Lourdes, the bone instantly regrew into the original socket. Formally recognised by Rome in 1976.
Serge Perrin — recurring hemiplegia at Lourdes
A French man with recurring organic right-sided hemiplegia and ocular lesions was cured at the Eucharistic procession at Lourdes in 1970. Recognised in 1978 as the 64th formally approved cure.
Delizia Cirolli — bone cancer at Lourdes
A twelve-year-old Sicilian girl with metastatic Ewing's sarcoma of the knee — given weeks to live — was cured after a Lourdes pilgrimage in 1976. Recognised in 1989 as the 65th formally approved cure.
Jean-Pierre Bély — multiple sclerosis cured at the Anointing
A 51-year-old French nurse with progressive multiple sclerosis since 1972 and complete quadriparesis was instantly cured during the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick at Lourdes in 1987. Recognised in 1999 as the 66th cure.
Danila Castelli — paroxysmal hypertension
A 44-year-old Italian woman suffering from severe drug-resistant paroxysmal hypertension following pheochromocytoma surgery was cured at the Lourdes baths in 1989. Recognised in 2013 as the 67th cure.
Nohad El-Shami — the cure at the tomb of St. Charbel
A 55-year-old Lebanese woman paralysed by a stroke was cured at the tomb of St. Charbel Makhlouf — and discovered the next morning the two surgical scars on her neck through which the surgery she did not undergo would have been performed.
Monica Besra — Mother Teresa's beatification miracle
A Bengali tribal woman dying of an abdominal tumour was cured on the first anniversary of Mother Teresa's death after the Missionaries of Charity placed a Miraculous Medal that had touched Mother Teresa on her abdomen.
The Healing of Audrey Toguchi — Damien of Molokai's Canonization Miracle
A retired Honolulu schoolteacher with terminal metastatic liposarcoma traveled to Damien's grave at Kalaupapa to pray. Without treatment, the tumors in her lung disappeared. The case carried Damien's 2009 canonization. She lived another fifteen years.
Consiglia di Martino — Padre Pio's canonization miracle
A seven-year-old Italian boy with fulminant meningitis — declared brain-dead by the doctors of Padre Pio's own hospital — was cured overnight after his mother and the religious community prayed to Bl. Padre Pio. Accepted for Padre Pio's canonization.
Serge François — paralysed leg restored at the Grotto
A 56-year-old Frenchman from Anjou with a herniated L4-L5 disc, left-foot paralysis and intractable sciatica for ten years — unresponsive to two operations — was instantly cured at the Grotto in 2002. Recognised in 2008 as the 67th-listed cure (since renumbered).
Sister Marie Simon-Pierre — Cured of Parkinson's Through John Paul II
A French nun's instantaneous cure from Parkinson's disease — the same illness that had afflicted Pope John Paul II — on the night of 2–3 June 2005, after her community prayed for his intercession two months after his death. Benedict XVI recognised it as the miracle for John Paul II's beatification on 14 January 2011.
The Cure of Jake Finkbonner — Kateri Tekakwitha's Canonization Miracle
A five-year-old Lummi boy from Ferndale, Washington, was dying of necrotizing fasciitis — flesh-eating bacteria — after a basketball injury. A relic of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha was placed on his pillow; within hours the bacteria stopped advancing. The recovery, examined by the Vatican Medical Consulta, became the second miracle that carried the 2012 canonization of the first Indigenous saint of North America.
Sister Bernadette Moriau — the 70th Lourdes Miracle
A French Franciscan sister, paralysed for 27 years by cauda equina syndrome and dependent on morphine, was cured at Lourdes in 2008. Recognised on February 11, 2018 as the 70th Lourdes miracle.
Floribeth Mora Díaz — Brain Aneurysm Cure Through John Paul II
Floribeth Mora Díaz, a Costa Rican mother of four, had been diagnosed on April 8, 2011 with a large aneurysm of the right cerebral artery declared inoperable and terminal. On May 1, 2011 — the day of Pope John Paul II's beatification — she was watching the ceremony on television when she heard the pope's voice saying, 'Get up — don't be afraid.' The aneurysm vanished; the cure was accepted as the miracle for John Paul II's canonization in 2014.