This miracle at Lourdes was recognized in 1999

Jean Pierre Bely was miraculously cured of multiple sclerosis during a pilgrimage to Lourdes in 1987, at the age of 51. This miracle was officially acknowledged by the Church in 1999. 

Bely looks back on the miracle that changed his life: "At first I felt a little warmth in my toes, and then it began to rise to my ankles and legs, invading my whole body and bringing all my limbs back to life. I could feel my mobility returning, and at one point this heat became so intense that I found myself sitting on the edge of my bed, legs dangling, feeling my wrists. The sensitivity in my fingers had returned. All signs of the disease had disappeared. I felt like I was dreaming!" 

For Bely, this was more than a physical miracle: it was "a sign of God's tenderness and mercy."

Doctors don't always have explanations for these extraordinary cases that challenge medicine. Neurologist Catherine Lubetzki, who in her entire career has never witnessed a cure as spectacular as Bely's, does not claim to understand what happened. She simply says: "What matters is that people get well."

For his part, Dr Patrick Theillier, head of the Lourdes medical office, describes the procedure required to validate a miracle: "First of all, there has to be a recovery. The healing has to be medically unexplained, and then we can start talking about miracles. It's the Catholic Church that normally speaks of a miracle, on an official level, insofar as it sees God's intervention in the healing."

Adapted from: www.ina.fr