A Miracle and an Angel

Sister Marie Simon Pierre is a simple nun with an incredible story she's prepared to tell the world, a story that well lead to the beatification of Pope John Paul II.

Under the Vatican's saint-making process, the first step towards beatification requires that a candidate must either be a martyr or  perform one verfiable posthumous miracle.

Sister Marie Simon Pierre  was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2001, a condition that worsened over the years and felt a strong affinity to Pope John Paul II who suffered from the same disease.  Both she and her community of the Little Sisters of Catholic Maternities prayed for her healing and for  the intercession of John Paul.

Weeks after his death, she awoke one night completely cured.

International Herald Tribune
Simple nun, 'no star', at center of Pope John Paul Beatification

London Times Online
The discreet little nun who could speed John Paul to Sainthood

by the time the Pope died in April 2005, she was unable to stand or walk. She had stopped working as a nurse in a Paris maternity hospital and was confined to office activities.

Two months later she tried to write down John Paul II’s name as she prayed to him for help “but all that came out was a scribble,” she said in an account sent to the Vatican.

However, that evening, the “miracle” occurred.

“I fell asleep and, waking up several hours later, felt that the illness had disappeared,” said Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre.

She leapt out of bed and went to the chapel to pray.

“I felt a profound sense of peace and wellbeing. My hand did not tremble anymore.” Four days later the doctor who had been treating her for four years declared that the symptoms had vanished completely, with no medical explanation.

Father Slawomir Oder, the Polish prelate in charge of John Paul II’s beatification claim, said handwriting experts had compared the nun’s “illegible scribble” on the day of her prayer with her “perfectly legible and comprehensible” writing the next morning. He said doctors in France had become convinced of the miraculous nature of her cure. Psychologists had also conducted tests to prove she had no psychiatric problems.

You have to see this picture of The Ghostly Angel of the Vatican.