MICHAEL WALSH OP-ED. In 1902, Dr Alexis Carrel was a brilliant French surgeon and scientist. Though raised Catholic, he had drifted into agnosticism and approached religion with deep scepticism.

He boarded a train to Lourdes not as a pilgrim, but as a curious observer, intending to document what he expected would be hysteria or fraud.

Marie Bailly

On that same train was 23-year-old Marie Bailly. She was dying of advanced tuberculous peritonitis. Her abdomen was massively swollen and hard with large masses.

Multiple doctors confirmed she was near death. Carrel himself injected her with morphine during the night, believing she might not survive the journey.

The Lourdes Grotto

Michael Walsh at the Lourdes Grotto. He has been well ever since.

The next day at Lourdes, against medical advice, Marie was taken to the Grotto. Three pitchers of spring water were poured over her swollen abdomen.

Carrel stood behind her, notebook in hand, carefully recording every detail.

What he witnessed left him stunned:

The enormously distended and rock-hard abdomen began to flatten. Within about 30 minutes, the swelling had completely disappeared.

No fluid drained from her body. Her pulse strengthened. The hard masses were gone.

By the next day, Marie sat up, ate without vomiting, dressed herself, and walked.

Carrel later wrote that he had seen something ‘complete, rapid, and, in a word, marvellous.’

These events never left him

This was not the only miracle he witnessed. Years later he saw a blind infant instantly regain sight at Lourdes. These events never left him.

Though it took decades, the surgeon who once approached Lourdes with doubt eventually returned to the Catholic faith.

In 1942 he publicly affirmed belief in God, the immortality of the soul, and the teachings of the Church. On his deathbed in 1944, he received the Last Rites.

Science and faith are not enemies. Sometimes the man trained to trust only what he can measure is the one God chooses to show that some healings go far beyond human explanation.

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us. Amen! Let readers know what you think

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