More than 15 years after she first walked away from the shrine in awe and disbelief, an Italian woman’s sudden recovery from a debilitating illness has officially been declared the 72nd recognized miracle at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes.
Antonietta Raco, who suffered from primary lateral sclerosis, a rare and progressive neuromuscular disease, was cured during a 2009 pilgrimage to the famed Catholic site in southwestern France. This week, the Church formally recognized her healing as a miracle.
The announcement was made Wednesday by Father Michel Daubanes, rector of the Lourdes sanctuary, after the recitation of the rosary. Simultaneously, Bishop Vincenzo Carmine Orofino of Tursi-Lagonegro — the diocese where Raco lives — also confirmed the miracle, calling it a sign of divine grace.
According to the Italian diocese, Raco experienced a profound transformation after bathing in the spring waters of Lourdes, which are venerated by Catholics as a source of healing. “She began to move independently,” the statement said. “The effects of the infamous illness immediately and definitively disappeared.”
Doctors at the time were stunned. Her own physician described the healing as “a scientifically inexplicable phenomenon,” according to Italian newspaper La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno. For years, Raco had endured the slow loss of mobility that characterizes her condition — a disease with no known cure.
What followed was a lengthy process of investigation. The International Medical Committee of Lourdes, a body tasked with verifying the scientific legitimacy of alleged healings, concluded that Raco’s recovery could not be explained by current medical knowledge.
The diocese of Tursi-Lagonegro then convened its own commission — comprised of medical and theological experts — and appointed an episcopal delegate to conduct an ecclesiastical inquiry. After careful discernment, the Church ruled that the healing bore the hallmarks of divine intervention.
“Thank God, who with this divine sign has once again manifested His presence among His people,” the diocese said in a statement.
For her part, Raco recalled experiencing “an unusual feeling of well-being” after her immersion in the Lourdes waters — a moment she now remembers as the beginning of her new life.
The Sanctuary of Lourdes, built at the site where Saint Bernadette Soubirous reported Marian apparitions in 1858, draws millions of pilgrims each year. Though thousands have claimed healing over the decades, only a handful have met the rigorous medical and theological scrutiny required for official recognition by the Church.