Francis Pascal of Beaucaire was three and a half years old in August 1938. A bout of tubercular meningitis the year before had left him completely blind and paralysed below the waist; he could not stand or walk and could not see his own hand in front of his face. The Marseille physicians had judged the condition permanent.
His mother brought him to Lourdes on the regional pilgrimage of August 1938. He was bathed in the piscines on August 28; nothing changed. On August 31, the last day of the pilgrimage, he was bathed a second time. As his mother lifted him from the water he opened his eyes, looked at her, and called out that he could see; within hours he was walking. The cure was followed by the Lourdes Medical Bureau and the International Medical Committee for over a decade and was formally recognised by the Bishop of Nîmes on May 31, 1949 — the 44th miraculous cure on the official list.