In the foothills of the Pyrenees, the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes draws millions of pilgrims seeking relief from illness and despair. Behind the famous grotto and candlelit processions sits a little-known medical office where world-class physicians spend years testing extraordinary claims. Of the thousands of reported cures since the 19th century, the Catholic Church has formally recognized just 72 as “medical miracles”—cases specialists conclude are medically unexplained after exhaustive review.
Nut graf: Lourdes is both a place of devotion and a laboratory of last resort. At the Lourdes Office of Medical Observations, doctors and researchers evaluate testimonies of sudden, lasting recoveries with a rigor more akin to a clinical audit than a shrine. Their task is not to prove the divine; it is to determine whether any plausible medical explanation exists. Only when physicians exhaust those possibilities do church authorities consider declaring a miracle.
A pilgrimage that became a test case
Among the most closely examined cases is Sister Bernadette Moriau, now 83. For decades, she lived with cauda equina syndrome, a debilitating disorder affecting nerves in the lower spine. Her left foot was twisted and limp; she relied on a back and leg brace, an implanted device to blunt nerve pain, and large doses of morphine to function. By 2008, after years of treatment, her doctor urged one more option: a spiritual retreat to Lourdes.
“I always believed in miracles—but not for me,” Sister Bernadette recalled. She went to pray in solidarity with others, not to seek a cure. After returning home, her physical pain initially worsened. Then, three days later, she says she experienced an intense warmth through her body and a compelling “inner voice”: Take all your braces off. When she removed the foot brace, the once-crooked foot was straight. She weaned herself off the morphine. “I knew it was impossible,” she said, “but I could put my foot on the ground without pain.”
Her physician referred the case to Lourdes’ medical office. What followed was nearly a decade of scrutiny.
The seven criteria—and the long road to “medically unexplained”
Dr. Alessandro De Franciscis, a pediatrician by training and the president/physician of the Lourdes Office of Medical Observations, describes a process governed by seven strict criteria. Investigators first establish a precise and serious diagnosis with a poor prognosis. They then look for a cure that is sudden, complete, and durable—and, crucially, for which there is no possible medical explanation.
In Sister Bernadette’s case, the office collected an “ungodly” amount of documentation: repeated imaging and electrophysiology, independent evaluations by neurologists and rheumatologists, and psychiatric assessments to rule out deception or hallucination. The file was then sent to the International Medical Committee of Lourdes—a rotating panel of 30-plus physicians and professors from multiple specialties—to decide whether the recovery met the threshold of “medically unexplained.”
Surgeons, urologists, and addiction specialists—among them Dr. Michael Moran, Dr. Jacek Mostwin, and Dr. Kieran Moriarty—pored over the records. “No treatment would be that effective that quickly,” Dr. Moriarty noted, in explaining why standard therapies could not account for the change.
After eight years, the committee judged the cure medically inexplicable. In 2018, a decade after the reported recovery, the local bishop declared it the 70th miracle of Lourdes. (Two additional cases have since been recognized, bringing the total to 72.)
Lourdes beyond physical cures: solace, service, and community
Not everyone who travels to Lourdes leaves with a transformed medical chart. Many come seeking strength to endure illness, or a measure of peace when medicine has no easy answers.
Kansas resident Kim Halpin—diagnosed with an incurable blood cancer—traveled to immerse herself in the shrine’s baths. “I’ve asked for complete healing, or a super-long remission,” she said. “Maybe I will be blessed with part of it, which will be okay.”
For Jamie Jensen, who has cerebral palsy and has made 18 pilgrimages, the “miracle” was internal. “I was very bitter, very angry with myself,” he said. Lourdes, he added, helped him find “peace within myself.”
Those experiences unfold amid a choreography of care. As many volunteers as pilgrims seem to circulate through the esplanade, assisting with wheelchairs, the baths, and nightly candlelit processions. The sanctuary itself—three basilicas, 25 chapels, and the famed grotto—operates like a sacred campus, offering dozens of liturgies and devotions every day.
How a 19th-century vision became a global destination
Lourdes’ origins trace to 1858, when 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous reported a series of apparitions of a “lady” in the grotto. On March 25 of that year, the figure identified herself as the “Immaculate Conception,” a title Catholics associate with the Virgin Mary. Word of cures spread quickly, and with them, the risk of credulity and exploitation. In 1883, church authorities created the medical office precisely to investigate claims and prevent hysteria by anchoring extraordinary stories in ordinary, verifiable facts.
The office’s stance is transparent and, in a sense, deflationary: it never certifies divine intervention; it only concludes that a case meets the bar for being medically inexplicable. The theological judgment—whether “God did something,” as Bishop Jean-Marc Micas puts it—belongs to the church.
Skepticism is part of the landscape. “Come and see,” Bishop Micas says to doubters. “Be open to believe that the real world is wider than the visible one.” For the physicians, the lesson is more circumscribed but no less profound: medicine has limits.
What readers want to know
What counts as a “medical miracle” at Lourdes?
A case with a serious, well-documented illness that is suddenly, completely, and durably resolved—with no plausible medical explanation after extensive, independent review. Physicians call such cases “medically unexplained.” Church leaders may then recognize them as miracles.
How many miracles have been recognized?
Seventy-two since the 19th century, out of thousands of claims. The bar is intentionally high, and the process can take years.
Who decides?
Doctors decide whether a cure is medically inexplicable. Only then can the local bishop declare a miracle. The Lourdes medical files are collegial and open to qualified physicians who wish to review them.
If most people aren’t physically cured, why do they go?
Pilgrims often seek hope, community, and inner peace. Many describe spiritual consolation or acceptance even without a change in diagnosis. Volunteers’ service is itself a hallmark of the shrine.
Is Lourdes anti-science?
The opposite. Its medical office was established to apply scientific rigor to extraordinary claims. The office does not “prove God”; it tests whether medicine can explain a reported cure.
Why it matters
In an age marked by medical advancement and moral uncertainty, Lourdes sits at the intersection of empiricism and faith. For believers, its recognized miracles are signs of divine care. For clinicians, its archive is a reminder that not every recovery is reducible to a protocol or pill. And for the millions who visit, the shrine offers what modern health systems often struggle to deliver: time, attention, and a community willing to carry one another’s burdens.
What’s next
The Lourdes Office of Medical Observations continues to receive and evaluate new claims, case by case, using the same criteria that have kept the recognized list small. Pilgrimages persist year-round, with processions each evening and volunteer networks assisting the sick and vulnerable. Whether one arrives hopeful for a cure or simply in need of quiet, the work of Lourdes—measured in files and in candles—goes on.
Quick “What to Know” box
- Place: Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, southwest France
- Role of doctors: Investigate reported cures; determine whether they are medically unexplained
- Threshold: Serious diagnosis; sudden, complete, lasting recovery; no plausible medical explanation
- Track record: 72 recognized miracles since the 19th century
- Takeaway: Lourdes does not pit faith against science; it subjects extraordinary claims to rigorous medical review while leaving theological judgments to the church.
