Lourdes: First miracle of English pilgrim recognised

Jack Traynor (front centre) on a trip to Lourdes in 1925, following his miraculous cure.

Source: Archdiocese of Liverpool

Liverpool Archbishop Malcolm McMahon OP, has officially declared the case of John (Jack) Traynor as a miracle.

Jack was a pilgrim on the archdiocese's first official pilgrimage to Lourdes in 1923 and was cured dramatically of epilepsy, paralysis of the right arm and paraplegia during the pilgrimage.

The case has been believed to be miraculous from people across the archdiocese and beyond, but, despite an attempt in 1993, there has never been an official ecclesiastical declaration until today.

This is the 71st official miracle to have happened in Lourdes and the first person from England to be recognised.

At the time of the archdiocese's centenary pilgrimage to Lourdes in 2023, the current President of the Lourdes Office of Medical Observations (BdCM), Dr Alessandro de Franciscis, asked Dr Kieran Moriarty, an English member of the International Medical Committee of Lourdes, to conduct a review of the file of John Traynor held in the archives at Lourdes.

Dr Moriarty unearthed a reference in the file to a report by Dr Vallet, the then Acting President of the BdCM, which had been published in the Journal de la Grotte in December 1926. Dr Vallet examined John Traynor in July 1926, together with Drs Azurdia, Marley and Finn, the three Liverpool doctors who had examined John Traynor at Lourdes in 1923, both before and after his cure.

De Vallet's report concluded that, "We recognise and proclaim, along with our Confreres, that the process of this prodigious healing is absolutely outside and above the forces of nature." His report, which was published in French, appears never to have been sent to Liverpool, and indeed no potential miraculous cures were ever referred from Lourdes to diocesan bishops between 1913 and 1946.

Dr Moriarty continued his research in archdiocesan archives and elsewhere, assembling an extensive dossier of evidence, and in particular contemporaneous medical evidence, relating to the cure of John Traynor. This dossier was then sent to the archdiocese by Monseigneur Jean-Marc Micas, the Bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, over the summer.

It was clear that there was now sufficient medical evidence to reconsider the possibility that the cure of John Traynor might be declared miraculous. Accordingly, Archbishop Malcolm convened a canonical commission to consider this case, with both Dr Moriarty and Dr de Franciscis appearing as witnesses.

Archbishop Malcolm said: "Given the weight of medical evidence, the testimony to the faith of John Traynor and his devotion to Our Blessed Lady, it is with great joy that I declare that the cure of John Traynor, from multiple serious medical conditions, is to be recognised as a miracle wrought by the power of God through the intercession of Our Lady of Lourdes.

"I hope that in February 2025, during the Jubilee Year, we will have a fitting celebration at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King to mark this significant moment in the history of our archdiocese, helping us all to respond to the Jubilee call to be 'Pilgrims of Hope'.

For more information see:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c878d2eeepzo.amp