Vittorio Micheli was a 23-year-old Italian Alpine soldier when, in April 1962, he was admitted to military hospital with a malignant sarcoma of the pelvis that had destroyed the entire left iliac region. X-rays showed the femoral head completely detached from the pelvis; the leg dangled. Both hip joint and acetabulum had been eaten away. He was put in a plaster cast from chest to foot.
Carried on a stretcher to Lourdes in May 1963, he was immersed in the baths on June 1. He returned to Italy still in his plaster cast and showing no immediate change. But the pain — constant for months — disappeared overnight. Two months later he asked his doctors for X-rays. They were astounded: the femoral head and a complete pelvic acetabulum had visibly regrown, fitting perfectly into a new joint. Over the following year the bone fully restored; Micheli walked and worked. Investigated by the Lourdes Medical Bureau, the International Medical Committee of Lourdes, and the Diocese of Trent, the cure was formally recognised by the Bishop of Trento on May 26, 1976 as the 63rd Lourdes miracle.