Miracles Worked by the Saints Throughout the Centuries

Mr Plese continues his series on miracles. Part 1 is Miracles As Proof That Catholicism Is From God, Part 2 is Miracles As Testified in the Holy Scriptures.

From One Peter Five

By Matthew Plese, TOP

This article is the third in a 10-part series that will explore miracles as proof of the truths of Catholic doctrine. In part two, we considered the numerous miracles documented in the Scriptures including those worked in Old Testament times, those worked by Our Blessed Lord as recorded in the New Testament, and those worked by the Apostles after His Ascension. In this installment, we consider the countless miracles worked by men and women like us who lived and died in the Catholic Faith.

Apparitions, healings, resurrections, and more are all forms of bodily miracles. There are dozens of confirmed and verified apparitions in history, not only of our Blessed Mother (e.g., at Guadalupe, Rue de Bac, La Salette, Lourdes, Quito, and Fatima) but also of St. Michael the Archangel (e.g., Mount Gargano, near Naples, Italy; and at Fatima) and other saints (e.g., St. Joseph at Fatima). Many have been likewise bodily cured by the prayers and intercession of the saints, such as the miracles by Our Lady at Lourdes.

Similarly, many saints have raised the dead. St. Vincent Ferrer alone is known to have raised more than thirty people from the dead, and the Church records 873 miracles performed by him. St. Rose of Viterbo, St. Joseph of Cupertino, St. Collette, and St. Juan Capistrano are just some of the other saints who have raised the dead.

How Can the Saints Hear Our Prayers to Work Miracles?

“And when he had opened the book, the four living creatures, and the four and twenty ancients fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints” (Apocalypse 5:8)

The Book of Revelations written by St. John the Apostle specifically mentions how the prayers of the saints are presented before God in Heaven. The saints in Heaven are very much aware of what is happening on earth because God has in His order of the world permitted them to know of prayers addressed to them. In Matthew 17:3-5, the Prophets Moses and Elijah were aware of what was taking place on the earth. The saints themselves are witnesses of what occurs on earth as the Book of Hebrews specifically states: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us” (Hebrews 12:1). And Our Lord Himself in Luke 15:7-10 describes those in Heaven rejoicing over repentance on earth. How could they do so unless in the mystical order of the universe God has somehow permitted them to know and see what was happening on the earth?

Miracles Worked Through the Relics of the Saints

The veneration of relics is a practice that precedes Christianity and has its origin in ancient Judaism. In the 2nd Book of Kings (cf. 13:21) we read the account of a corpse being thrown “into the grave of Elisha.” Upon contact with the prophet Elisha’s remains, the corpse resuscitated to life. Holy objects (such as Aaron’s staff, the Ten Commandments, and manna from the desert) were both revered, and preserved in the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 25:10).

The Church adopted the veneration of sacred objects from Judaism. Our practices are often based in part on the practices of the Old Testament. Many miracles have been worked in the Church’s history through these sacred objects, testifying that God blesses the practice of honoring relics. Tradition tells us that Saint Helena, Constantine’s mother, discerned which of the three crosses found on the hill of Calvary was the True Cross, upon which our Savior died for us, by placing a sick child on them. The child was restored to health when he made contact with the True one. And miracles have routinely been performed at the tombs of St. Charbel, St. Anthony, and countless others. The Church’s official prayers on various feastdays bear witness to the miracles performed through relics. In fact, in the pre-1955 Missal, the Church kept August 3rd as the Feast of the Finding of the Relics of St. Stephen on account to the countless miracles worked through those relics to all who encountered them.

According to tradition, St. Andrew was martyred in Patras, Greece. In 357 AD, his remains were transferred to the city of Constantinople, where they were placed in the Church of the Holy Apostles, which was newly constructed by the order of Emperor Constantine. During the Fourth Crusade in 1206, St. Andrew’s relics were brought from Constantinople to Amalfi, Italy, where they remain today. In the 14th century, it was discovered that the bones of St. Andrew excrete a substance known as the “manna of St. Andrew” four times a year: January 28, June 26, November 29 – his feastday is November 30 – and December 7. Though the Church has not issued any formal pronouncement regarding this miracle, the faithful Catholics of Amalfi joyously celebrate its occurrence and thank God through the intercession of St. Andrew for continuing to work miracles among us.

Three great pilgrimage destinations in the United States known for their vast collection of relics include St. Anthony’s Chapel in Pittsburgh, PA, the Shrine of Relics in Maria Stein, OH, and the Shrine of All Saints in Morton Grove, IL.

The Miracle of Bilocation

Many saints are said to have manifested the gift of bilocation – that of being in more than one place at the same time. It is understood that the mystical gift is not given for the convenience of the recipient, but to aid him in helping his fellow man or in performing a function some distance away that had been forgotten. Numbered among those having manifested this grace is Saint Catherine de Ricca (1522-1590), an Italian, Dominican Tertiary. 

Saint Catharine never left the contemplative convent of San Vincenzio in Florence. She corresponded, however, with Saint Philip Neri, who lived and ministered in Rome, and St. Maria Magdalene de Pazzi, who was self-confined and never left the contemplative at the Monastery of St. Mary of the Angels, in another part of Florence across the city. Catherine established close friendships with each of them, and always expressed a hope to meet each of them. God, who delights in fulfilling the desires of His servants, brought them physically face-to-face in a miraculous manner, through Catherine’s grace of bilocation, as both Philip and Maria Magdalene de Pazzi testified. Others who were with these two during the visits verified the encounters.[1]

Another is Saint Alphonsus Maria Liguori (1696-1787), founder of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, who was reported to be seen giving a homily and hearing confessions at the same time. Once, while preparing to say Mass, Saint Ligouri entered into a trance-like ecstasy after which he reported that he had visited the deathbed chamber of Pope Clement XIV. His presence in both places was confirmed by those attending the dying Pope despite his being four days travel away.[2]

Finally, a bit about Saint Paul of the Cross (1694-1775) who founded the Passionists. After having given a mission in Piombino on the East Coast of Italy he booked passage on a ship where he was seen by a large crowd of supporters to board the ship and set sail. One of those accompanying Paul was Dr. Gherardini, who accompanied him to the vessel and did not leave the port until the vessel sailed out of sight over the horizon. A few hours later, Dr. Gherardini met Paul coming out of a local house in town. Not believing his eyes, the doctor asked him, “How is it, Father Paul, that I find you here? I just saw you setting sail from the port, and I kept my eyes on the vessel and on you until you were out on the high sea.  How is it that you came to be here?” “Please keep this to yourself” admonished Saint Paul, “I came here on an errand of charity” and then he suddenly disappeared!

Manifestation of the Gift of Fasting

As with bilocation, extreme fasting is a grace attributed to many Saints. Saints Francis of Assisi and Saint Clare are two examples of those who greatly increased in holiness through extensive periods of solitude, prayer, and fasting.

During the last century, Alexandrina da Costa (1904-1955), proclaimed “blessed” by Pope John Paul II, was authenticated by medical doctors to have lived for more than thirteen years without eating food or drinking water, sustained only by daily reception of the Body of Christ. Alexandrina, a Portuguese woman, was seriously injured and paralyzed when she jumped from a second-story window in a home where she and several other women were chatting and sewing. When three men broke into the home with the intent of raping the women, Alexandrina, a deeply Catholic young woman, jumped from the window in an effort to preserve her virginity.

After the fall, Alexandrina was seriously injured, being severely paralyzed, a condition which caused ambulatory degeneration over the next several years. When she turned twenty, she was in constant and severe pain, totally bedridden and almost completely paralyzed. Alexandrina began to see her suffering to be her vocation. Beginning on Good Friday, March 27, 1942, Alexandrina received no nourishment of any kind except the Holy Eucharist for the next thirteen years and seven months until her death. Concerning her living on the Eucharist alone, Jesus told her in an ecstasy, “You will not take food again on earth. Your food will be My Flesh, your blood will be My Divine Blood, your life will be My Life. You receive it from me when I unite My Heart to your heart. Do not fear, my daughter….”

Church authorities, concerned by the growing popularity Alexandrina was receiving from the public, ordered the woman to report to a hospital for a complete battery of medical tests. She was to remain confined here for forty days, while strictly isolated from family and friends, and continually observed by doctors and nurses twenty-four hours per day. They carefully monitored that she saw a priest only once per day, and that the only sustenance she received from him was the consecrated host and wine containing the Body and Blood of Christ.

After this forty-day internment, the doctors released a final report: “It is absolutely certain that during forty days of being bedridden in hospital, the sick woman did not eat or drink… and we believe such phenomenon could have happened during the past months, perhaps the past 13 months… leaving us perplexed.” The report was signed by Dr. Gomez de Araujo of the Royal Academy of Medicine, Madrid, a specialist in nervous diseases and arthritis.[3] 

The Gift of Prophecy

Saint Anthony Mary Claret (1807-1870) was a Spaniard who is renown as the founder of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. As a missionary, he spent considerable time away from Spain ministering in Cuba, Paris and in the Canary Islands. He also participated in the First Vatican Council.

Saint Claret once organized a regional mission to be held during the peak of harvest season in the region of Spain in which he ministered. He traveled from farm to farm and from house to house to encourage everyone in the surrounds to attend. Although Spain at that time was a predominantly Catholic nation, many of the farmers were reluctant to refuse the missionary’s invitation; however, because of the mission’s ill-timed scheduling, they were as reluctant to leave their crops in the field during this critical time of harvesting. 

In response, Saint Anthony told the farm workers that they would not suffer loss if they attended. In fact, he warned, “In God’s name I say to you, that if you come to the Mission your wheat fields will be more productive, and all danger of rain and hailstorms will be averted. If, however, you do not come, your harvest will be destroyed.”

Reluctantly at first, at least some of the farmers and farm workers began to attend, and many who attended were converted and all were spiritually strengthened greatly. Two days later, the farmers who did not attend the mission had their crops completely decimated, while the storms miraculously routed themselves around the fields of those who attended. Often these fields adjoined each other! In fact, the wheat harvested from those fields spared yielded greater crops!

As an additional example, consider Saint Colette (1381-1447), the founder of the Colettine Poor Clares. While traveling to attend a meeting with Pope Benedict, Colette stopped at the home of close friends who lived in Nice, France. The wife of the couple was in hard labor with their third child, and the child was presenting a breech position in the birth canal, greatly endangering the life of both the child and the mother. Assuring the mother of a successful birth, Saint Colette went to the local Church to pray. After hours of hard labor and at the time of Saint Colette’s prayers, the mother gave birth successfully, and both mother and child survived. The child born was a girl. She later entered a monastery founded by Colette and became Colette’s personal secretary and biographer. Near the end of her life, Colette predicted with accuracy and in detail the coming Protestant Revolt which was not to come for some fifty years.

The Miracles of Healing

And of course, there are numerous miracles of healings worked through the intercession of the saints.

Even before the birth of Saint Vincent Ferrer, people from around Valencia, Spain, came to his parents with amazing stories predicting events which would occur in the child’s life. A blind woman well known in Valencia predicted that the child born would heal her of her blindness. The Saint’s father had a dream in which a monk appeared to him and predicted the child would be a boy. Moreover, this dream proclaimed that the boy would become a Dominican and that as a Dominican, he would obtain great fame! Vincent’s mother had a remarkable pregnancy, in that she suffered no sickness or discomfort throughout the nine months and gave birth without pain.

True to his vocation, Vincent traveled widely preaching and performing miracles around Europe and the Near East. He brought many Muslims and Jews into the Church. Many instances of raising of the dead are attributed to this holy man. On one occasion, as an innocent man was being led to his execution, while a stretcher carrying a corpse was carried nearby. Saint Vincent, assured of the accused man’s innocence spoke to the corpse, “If this man is innocent, so proclaim.” It is said that the corpse sat up and declared in a loud voice, “Not Guilty!” As a reward, Saint Vincent asked the now revived dead man to get up and walk, and the man replied, “No, I am assured of my salvation, and I do not wish to tarry.” He laid back down, once again dead. Thousands of healings are attributed to Saint Vincent of Ferrer. As he was dying, Saint Vincent said, “Whatever you do, think not of yourselves, but of God!”

Similarly, hundreds of instances of Padre Pio’s miracles of healing were documented during his life. His great compassion for the sick, and especially for sick children, was and is well-known. Once, in the late 1940’s, a fourteen-year-old girl afflicted with severe epilepsy was deep in prayer one evening in her bedroom. During her prayer, she asked Padre Pio for his intercession for a cure for here disease. Up until this particular evening, this girl had as many as three seizures in a single day, making it almost impossible for her to leave her home. During her  prayer, Padre Pio suddenly appeared at her bedside and placed his hand on her bed-linen, smiled at her and, in the next  instant, he disappeared. However, he did leave a slight stain of blood in the shape of a cross where he had laid his hand. From that moment, the girl never again suffered from the seizures that had plagued her since her birth. That small section of blood-stained linen is preserved to this day. Doctors who had been treating the girl throughout her life had never seen, nor could they explain the spontaneous remission.

In 1957, a French boy named Daniel Batonnaire was on the very verge of death, having contracted a rapidly progressing form of spinal meningitis, probably from his school. His mother, in desperation, sent a telegram to San Giovanni Rotondo begging Saint Pio to intervene on her dying son’s behalf. Within three hours of the dispatch of the telegram, the boy was completely healed, up-and-about. Later, when he saw a picture of the monk, he said to his mother, “Mother, I know that person. He came to my room to see me when I was ill!”

Indeed, in both the above narratives, Padre Pio manifested both the gift of bilocation and that of healing!

Conclusion

Besides considering the Scriptural basis for praying to the saints, we can also look at the manifestation of miracles which attest to the truths of Catholic doctrine. Obviously, God would not bless a false doctrine with an abundance of miracles, and if there were no God, miracles could not be. So, the miracles performed by Catholics saints, and attested to by numerous witnesses of exemplary character, furnish powerful proofs of the divinity of the Catholic religion. And there are so many, we hardly know where to begin. Various authors, such as Joan Carroll Cruz have written extensively about this.[4] Consider reading anything about St. Pio, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, St. Joseph of Cupertino, St. John Bosco, or St. Francis of Assisi.

There are no reported miracles ever worked by Martin Luther or any Protestant “reformer” or clergyman. This is in stark contrast to the saints.

---

[1] Introduction of Mysteries, Marvels, Miracles – In the Lives of the Saints; Joan Carroll Cruz; TAN Books; Reprint edition (February 1, 1997)

[2] Ibid.

[3] Alexandrina -The Agony and the Glory; Francis Johnston;, Tan Books (1979)

[4] Mysteries, Marvels, Miracles – In the Lives of the Saints; Joan Carroll Cruz; TAN Books; Reprint edition (February 1, 1997)