Recognized Miracles by the Church: All the Healings and Extraordinary Events

What are the miracles recognized by the Church, and which ones are still under investigation? From Lourdes to Medjugorje, including miraculous healings and testimonies of inexplicable events.

The Catholic Church acknowledges the existence of inexplicable, extraordinary phenomena that transcend the laws of nature. These are known as miracles. In fact, those attributed to Jesus and mentioned in the Gospels are considered historical facts. In Jewish culture, and thus in the Old Testament, miracles are viewed as signs of God’s omnipotence, while in the New Testament, the miracles performed by Jesus are clear signs of His divine nature. We can, therefore, define a miracle as any occurrence that cannot be attributed to natural causes but is justified by divine intervention. With this premise, discussing miracles recognized by the Church becomes a complex and delicate subject.

Miracles, especially unexplained healings, have always been the subject of heated debate between those who believe wholeheartedly in the divine intervention behind them and those who call for a more rational, logical, and scientific explanation. It’s not that the Church takes this matter lightly. If we want to estimate the number of verified and recognized miracles, taking as an example those attributed to Our Lady of Lourdes, there are dozens, with around seventy miracles recognized by the Church out of thousands of alleged miraculous healings and millions of pilgrims who, in recent years, have visited the sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes.

There is a specific procedure adopted by the Church regarding miracles, codified in 1983. It is mainly used in cases of unexplained healings and is based on a series of measurements and analyses collected and examined by a medical committee appointed by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. This team of doctors and scientists includes both secular and believing specialists who analyze each case presented to them and determine if it meets the seven criteria that define a healing miracle from a medical-scientific perspective. These criteria were gathered in the De Servorum Beatificatione et Beatorum Canonizatione (The Beatification of the Servants of God and the Canonization of the Blessed) by Cardinal Prospero Lambertini, who ascended to the papal throne as Pope Benedict XIV in 1740, and are still considered valid today. Here they are:

– The illness must be of a severe nature, with a negative prognosis;

– The actual diagnosis of the illness must be certain and precise;

– The illness must be strictly organic;

– Any treatment provided must not have contributed to the healing process;

– The recovery must be sudden, unexpected, and instantaneous;

– The return to normality must be complete (and without convalescence);

– The healing must be lasting (without relapse).

Once the seven criteria are recognized, the circumstances of the event are evaluated to connect them with potential divine intervention (such as prayers by the sick person, pilgrimage to a place famous for miraculous healings, etc.). If doubts about the healing remain after this final reflection, it is classified as spontaneous remission.

Miracles of Jesus

We mentioned how, among the miracles recognized by the Church, those performed by Jesus are recognized as historical facts, or at least allegorical accounts of actual events. These are the miracles narrated in the Canonical Gospels, as those found in the Apocryphal Gospels are often too contaminated with fantastic and fairy-tale elements.

We can categorize the miracles attributed to Jesus into three categories:

– Miracles over nature;

– Miracles of healing, exorcisms, and resurrection;

– Epiphanies or apparitions: transfiguration, post-Easter appearances.

The Resurrection falls outside this categorization, standing as Jesus’ ultimate miracle. Healings make up a large part of Jesus’ miracles, ranging from those meant to heal the body from fevers, diseases, and impairments, to those aimed at healing the spirit, such as exorcisms and liberations from demonic possessions.

Miracles of Lourdes

The French town of Lourdes, the site of eighteen apparitions of the Virgin Mary to Bernadette Soubirous in 1858, is also one of the places where the most healing miracles have been recorded, including many miraculous cancer healings. Of the seven thousand healings attributed to Our Lady of Lourdes, over two thousand have been recognized as inexplicable, and of these two thousand, only seventy have been formally recognized as verified miraculous healings. Right next to the Sanctuary of Lourdes stands the Bureau des Constatations Médicales (Office of Medical Confirmations), which examines the true or alleged healings. This office has existed since 1905 and follows the aforementioned seven criteria defined by Cardinal Lambertini. After an initial analysis, the International Medical Committee of Lourdes (CMIL), based in Paris, either confirms or refutes the conclusions reached by the office, and ultimately the Church recognizes or not the miraculous healing.

Since the miracles of the Virgin Mary and the healings of Lourdes are often attributed to the water from the spring in the Massabielle grotto, which the Virgin pointed out to Bernadette, it has been subjected to thorough analyses. The result was that the water from Lourdes has no medicinal or therapeutic properties, thus not explaining the miraculous healings.

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Our Lady of Lourdes with crown in painted wood of Valgardena

Statue in maple wood hand painted by the artisans of Valgardena.

Testimonies from Medjugorje

As for Medjugorje, many miraculous events are reported there as well, such as mysterious fragrances, drops flowing from the statue of Jesus, and many unexplained healings, even from severe illnesses. The international commission established by Benedict XVI in 2010 recognized the first seven apparitions of the Virgin Mary to the visionaries as valid, and in 2017, further investigations promoted by Pope Francis led to the recognition of the cult. However, regarding the alleged miracles in Medjugorje, reported by countless testimonies, the Catholic Church has not yet initiated official investigations. Medjugorje is recognized as a place of great spiritual concentration and, as such, a potential site of mystical events. Conversions, repentance, and vocations are miracles in their own right, worthy of note and consideration, without the need for further demonstrations.

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Our Lady of Medjugorje Statue, 40 cm, in plaster with mother of pearl

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