Lourdes Shrine Announces 72nd Miracle

Newsroom(21/04/2025 10:39, Gaudium Press) The 72nd miracle is that of 67-year-old   Antonietta Raco, who suffered from Primary Lateral Sclerosis (PLS) – an incurable disease of the nervous system that affects the brain’s motor neurons and prevents breathing and locomotion. She was cured in 2009, when she was in Lourdes with the organization of Italian pilgrimages, as announced by the Lourdes Shrine.                                              

The miracle was declared by Monsignor Vincenzo Carmine Orofino, bishop of the Diocese of Tursi-Lagonegro, in the province of Matera, Italy, and approved by the shrine’s Medical Examination Office. At the end of the afternoon on Wednesday 16th, the rector of the shrine, Mgr. Michel Daubanes, broke the news to a group of Italian pilgrims who were visiting the Grotto of Massabielle at the time.

Italian-born Antonietta Raco had been monitored for several years by the neurosciences department at the University of Turin for severe migraines. In 2005, her symptoms worsened. Again in 2008, she suffered a reduction in her expiratory vital capacity and hyposthenia. In 2009, she went on pilgrimage to Lourdes from 30 July to 5 August.

After leaving the Lourdes pool, she said that she ‘felt an unusual sense of well-being and was able to walk again’. She didn’t comment until she returned home. In August and September of the same year, she underwent a series of tests, which showed that the symptoms present since 2004 had disappeared, which confirmed the diagnosis of Primary Lateral Sclerosis,‘ noted Lourdes’ teams. In July 2010, Antonietta Raco declared her recovery to the Lourdes Medical Examination Committee.

Immediately, a first meeting of the Medical Examination Committee was called, at which the doctors present unanimously decided to open a file and investigate her medical history. Further meetings of the Committee were held in 2012, 2013 and 2016. In 2013, Antonietta Raco was assessed by the Department of Neurology at the University of Milan, which confirmed the diagnosis and took charge of follow-up. In 2017, a 5th and final meeting of the Board of Medical Findings was convened. The members of the Board observed Antonietta Raco’s recovery, described as inexplicable according to medical knowledge.

It wasn’t until November 2024 that, after a period of observation and validation of the international consensus on the diagnosis of PLE, the Bureau des Constatations Médicales de Lourdes, at its annual meeting, called on the members present to vote: ‘Is Mrs Antonietta Raco cured of Primary Lateral Sclerosis, according to the 2020 consensus, validated in 2024, in an unexpected, complete, lasting and inexplicable way according to medical knowledge?’. The majority voted yes. On 15 November 2024, the bishop of the diocese of Tarbes and Lourdes informed the bishop of the diocese of Tursi-Lagonegro, Antonietta Raco’s diocese of residence, who proclaimed the miracle on Wednesday 16 April 2025.

With Files From the Archive of the Lourdes Medical Examination Service