Paris, France, Jan 20, 2011 / 15:06 pm
The French religious sister, Marie Simon Pierre, has revealed new details about the miracle that paved the way for John Paul II’s May 1 beatification.
Sister Marie spoke Jan. 14 with both the French television network KTOtv and the Italian network RAI. She recalled that the miracle took place June 2, 2005. “That morning,” she said, “I was totally disabled and could no longer go on.”
The sister said that she thought about calling the superior of her community “to resign from my job at the maternity ward,” where she managed a number of staff members. “I felt so terrible and said to myself: I need to stop and resign from serving.”
Sister Marie’s request to step down was gently declined. Her superior invited Sr. Marie to instead ask John Paul II's intercession for a cure.
“We experienced a deep change in her office that lasted for several minutes. It was great peace and serenity, and I felt at peace and so did she,” Sister Marie revealed.
Her superior then asked her to write John Paul II’s name on a piece of paper, but the Parkinson’s disease had progressed such that she was experiencing severe trembling in her left arm. Her superior then suggested she try writing with her right hand. “I told her I couldn’t because my right hand also trembled.” However her superior insisted, “you can do it, you can do it,” Sister Marie recalled.
She wrote illegibly on the paper but thought, “Perhaps a miracle will happen if I just believe.”
“I left and went about my duties. That night I followed my normal routine, eating dinner with the community and joining in night prayers in the chapel,” Sister Marie said. When she returned to her room, she forced herself to write and was surprised to see that she could do so.
She slept well that night, without suffering her usual insomnia due to pain from the disease. At 4:30 a.m. on June 3, she awoke with a very different feeling. “I was no longer the same. I had an interior joy and great peace. Later I was surprised at the gestures I was able to make with my body,” she said.
At the same time, she experienced “a great urge to pray. It was not a time set aside for prayer but I prayed anyway,” the French sister recalled.
She prayed before the tabernacle in the maternity ward chapel “with deep joy,” meditating on the luminous mysteries of Pope John Paul II.
At 6 a.m. the community attended Mass. “I realized that my left arm no longer was immobile when I walked, but swung back and forth normally. During the Mass I became convinced that I was cured,” Sister Marie said.