Tell a friend you’re heading to Lourdes on pilgrimage, and you’ll likely hear a quip, anecdote or knowing comment about miracles. Since Bernadette’s apparitions in 1858, however, officially recognised miracles have been remarkably rare, especially when set against the millions who journey each year to the French Pyrenean town.
While many return spiritually renewed – a miracle of its own – the Lourdes Medical Bureau focuses on cases of physical healing. Each year, hundreds of pilgrims report extraordinary improvements in health, but only a fraction meet the stringent criteria for further investigation.
The process is exhaustive: a seven-step process must be satisfied before any cure is declared miraculous, with the bar set deliberately high. To date, only 72 cases have been officially recognised.
That’s why, when Dr Alessandro de Franciscis, president of the Lourdes Medical Bureau, invited me to hear the testimony of the latest addition to the list, Antonia Raco, I was intrigued, if also, I can't deny, somewhat sceptical.
This film tells Antonia’s story: her diagnosis with primary lateral sclerosis (PLS) in 2006 and her sudden recovery during pilgrimage in 2009. She tells her moving testimony of instantaneous recovery and the 15-year journey that followed before her healing was finally confirmed as the 72nd miracle of Lourdes.
Elliot Hartley is a video journalist currently based at Media City, Salford. He started working for the Catholic Herald in May 2024, and has made films on Corpus Cristi, Radio Maria, and the Latin Mass. His work is available at undertheledge.com.
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