- Merciful Mother, who always helps those in need, humbly calls to you, please protect me. I believe in Mother. I used a great miracle to answer your doubts. I do not yet recognize miracles and continue to doubt. But the greatest desire and deepest aspiration of my heart is to attain the Faith!
That was the earnest request of Alexis Carrel (1873-1944), a young French doctor, at the shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, late one night in 1903, after witnessing the miracle of a young woman recovering from illness. .
Alexis Carrel was born in Lyon (Northern France) into a devout Catholic family. Alexis lost his father at the age of four and was raised by his mother in the fear of God. But when growing up and becoming an excellent student, Alexis suddenly lost the simple Catholic Faith in his childhood. Alexis' loss of faith was partly due to the influence of atheistic materialism that was prevalent in European society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
At the age of 30, Alexis Carrel became a famous doctor and professor of anatomy in the department of medicine at the University of Lyon. One day in 1903, the diocese of Lyon organized a pilgrimage to Lourdes dedicated to the sick.
Due to a last-minute obstruction, a doctor friend asked Dr. Carrel to accompany the patients on his behalf. Dr. Carrel reluctantly accepted, but in his heart he was glad at the opportunity to mock and criticize on the spot the so-called "miracles of Lourdes". According to him, it is just the bullshit of uneducated, naive and gullible Catholics!
To his atheistic argument, another doctor, who accompanied the patients on the Lourdes pilgrimage that year, retorted:
– There are cases of cancer, severe pulmonary tuberculosis and true blindness that medical science can't help but be cured in an extraordinary way, causing doctors of all nationalities - faith or not - faith - cannot be explained at all. So what do you think?
Dr. Alexis Carrel stubbornly replied:
- It can't happen! Certainly examinations are not strictly enforced: before, during, and after recovery! Up to this moment, miracles have not been studied scientifically. In addition, to accept miracles is to accept the fact foolishly, because the law of nature is immutable.. However, before an obvious fact, one is bound to admit it. Therefore, if I witnessed an event with my own eyes, I would bow my head in acceptance!
Dr. Alexis Carrel's challenge was answered by Our Lady of Lourdes herself.
During the pilgrimage, Dr. Carrel was tasked with the personal care of a 24-year-old female patient named Marie Ferrand . She suffered from late-stage tuberculosis and suffered from painful peritonitis. The doctors gave up and she lay waiting to die. But her last wish is to make a pilgrimage to Lourdes. Her plea was granted.
The trip made her illness worse. When she reached Lourdes, she was barely breathing. Dr. Carrel took special care of her and he clearly saw that she could stop breathing at any moment. He told your doctor:
– If she recovers from the disease, it will be a miracle! At that time I will believe and will cut my hair and become a monk!
They planned to bring Marie Ferrand into the pool, but because of her serious illness, they only used Lourdes spring water to wash her body. Dr. Carrel always stood by her side. He whispered:
- Oh how I wish I could be like poor Catholics, trusting in the healing power of Our Lady's spring water! Please heal this young woman because she is in so much pain. Please give her more time to live and give me the Faith!
Suddenly, Dr. Alexis Carrel clearly saw the patient revived. The girl's face slowly turned pink. The pulse rate and heart rate become normal. The bloated belly is slowly collapsing. That strange phenomenon happened within 20 minutes. At exactly three o'clock in the afternoon, Miss Marie Ferrand said loudly:
- I have been cured!
They brought her a glass of milk, which she took and drank like a normal person.
Faced with that obvious fact, Dr. Alexis Carrel had to accept:
– An unexpected – impossible phenomenon – has actually happened! This is a miracle!
Since that miracle at Lourdes in 1903, Dr. Alexis Carrel slowly returned to the Catholic Faith and died in 1944.
During his lifetime, Dr. Alexis Carrel rose to fame, receiving the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1912. But when he died, he died in the simple faith of a child. Indeed, happy are those who have faith!
… “Holy Father, keep the disciples in your name which you have given me, that they may be one like we are. While I was with them, I kept them in Your name, which You gave me. I don't ask You to take them out of the world, but I ask You to keep them from evil spirits. They are not of the world just as this Son is not of the world. Please consecrate them with the truth. The Word of the Father is the Truth. Just as the Father sent the Son into the world, so the Son sent them into the world. For them I consecrate myself, that by the truth they too may be consecrated” (John 17:11-18).
(Albert Bessières, ”The Traveler from Lourdes: ALEXIS CARREL”, 20th Century Converts Collection, Belgium, 1952)
Sr. Jean Berchmans Minh Nguyet, January 12, 2008
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