Trish's Miracle
On December 24, 1993, in Phoenix, Arizona, 14 year-old Trish Zemba saddled up her ex-racehorse, Sly, and headed out for a ride. However, moments later, the horse bolted and then slipped and fell, throwing Trish to the ground and injuring her leg and foot.
Once home, Trish's injuries appeared superficial. She improved overnight, and the incident had little impact on the family's Christmas Day plans. The accident seemed like a thing of the past, until Trish was bathing some 10 days later and passed out.
The bathtub fall had triggered an avalanche of pain doctors could neither diagnose nor relieve. After five weeks of unrelenting agony, Trish was hospitalized. She was racked by pain every waking hour. Her left leg alternately turned purple and then back to normal, grew hot and feverish then icy cold. Ultimately, the diagnosis could hardly have been more frightning. Trish had a rare, often incurable nerve disease called Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, or R.S.D.
Doctors believe the disease is produced by malfunctioning nerve circuits. The nerves endlessly amplify pain sensations, making even a minor injury unremitting torture.
Doctors injected the most potent pain killing drugs available directly into Trish's spinal column but she hardly noticed. The R.S.D. continued to worsen, and Trish's muscles began to weaken from disuse.
Despite everything, Trish's parent say they never lost faith. Countless times each and every day, they turned to God asking for relief for their daughter's pain.
Trish's doctors soon proposed an operation usually reserved for terminal cancer patients, implanting a morphine pump into Trish's body. If it sufficiently dulled her pain, they could at least attempt phisical theraphy to slow the deterioration of Trish's leg muscles.
Sugery loomed, but early on the morning of March 11, 1994 the family's prayers were answered suddenly and dramatically.
Trish says she felt the pain move down her leg and then leave her body. She claims she heard a voice telling her to get up and walk. Obediently, Trish stood up and then walked out into the hospital corridor.
When her parents arrived that morning they were stunned to see their daughter standing for the first time in 2 and a half months. That same morning, Trish was released from the hospital. Since then there has been no recurrence of R.S.D.
Spontaneous remission is virtually without precedent in acute cases of R.S.D. Medical science still cannot explain Trish Zemba's stunning turnaround. However, to Trish and her family it is no mystery at all, just further evidence of the infinite power of faith.
Thank's to James W. Broatch & Molly Ryan for this information.
Church examines
Damien's 'miracle'
Doctors are unable to explain
a woman's delivery from cancer
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By Mary Adamski
"It's a miracle." Even in this age of science, it's a common expression. It's a sign of hope and faith in the divine, or at least a nod to the notion that humans aren't in control of everything.
But "miracle" is not a determination that a medical professional or even an ecclesiastical authority is likely to be comfortable in making.
Nevertheless doctors and priests began meeting this week in a formal tribunal in Honolulu to scrutinize a possible miracle. The question before them is this:
Mrs. K, of Oahu, had cancer in both lungs in September 1998, a diagnosis established by biopsy and X-rays. She postponed treatment while she made a pilgrimage to Kalaupapa to pray for healing. At the grave of Father Damien DeVeuster, the 19th-century missionary to leprosy victims, she prayed that he would intercede with God on her behalf. A month later, an X-ray showed that the malignant mass had shrunk, and within five months it disappeared. The cancer has not returned. Was that a miracle?
Mrs. K believes that it was. She wrote to Pope John Paul II about it, setting in motion a process in the ponderous bureaucracy of the Catholic Church. Her point was not to seek personal attention -- indeed, she has prevailed on church and medical folks to protect her privacy. Her desire, like that of Damien's myriad fans around the world, is to have the cure officially accepted as a miracle.
That is the final requirement for the church to canonize Damien as a saint. The priest, who died in 1889 of leprosy after serving Kalaupapa residents for 16 years, was declared "Blessed Damien" by the pope in 1995.
The retired educator was 69 when her journey of healing began. She told her story this week to the tribunal convened by Honolulu Bishop Francis DiLorenzo. Her devotion to Damien is rooted in family history; one of her grandparents was sent to the Molokai peninsula that was the place of banishment for Hansen's disease patients until the development of sulfone drugs led to the end of quarantine in 1969.
Her story of faith has extraordinary scientific backup. Her case of "spontaneous regression of cancer" was documented by Dr. Walter Chang in the October 2000 edition of the Hawaii Medical Journal. In technical language backed up with X-rays, Chang described the case for his medical peers, commenting only briefly that the inexplicable cure "was attributed, by the patient, to the intercession of Father Damien."
"She had absolutely no treatment, not even a diet," Chang said in a recent interview. The Honolulu surgeon said he was "a witness to this remarkable event," but the word miracle is not in his vocabulary. His article explored possible scientific bases for spontaneous regression in this and three other cases. He wrote that he had never heard of spontaneous regression in this particular type of lung cancer.
"The doctor's report brings credibility," said the Rev. Joseph Grimaldi, who was named by the bishop to head the investigative committee. "There was no scientific explanation for her cure."
The panel will interview other medical specialists, as well as family and acquaintances of the woman for insight into her faith and devotion to Damien. Sitting with Grimaldi are the diocesan chancellor John Ringrose, a layman and canon lawyer; Dr. Philip Jones, a non-Catholic physician who has worked at Kalaupapa; the Rev. Robert Maher, a Capuchin priest; Netty Peiler and Kathy Sniffen as notaries.
The 4-year-old case got charged with a new urgency last year by the interest of the international religious order to which Damien belonged. The Rev. Emilio Vega Garcia, who is stationed in the Rome headquarters of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, is in Hawaii to prod the process along in his role as procurator. Local Sacred Hearts Sister Helene Wood was commissioned vice postulator.
Chang said he has already compiled Mrs. K's medical records, which Vega Garcia presented to Dr. Franco DeRosa, physician and professor at the University of Rome. "He saw the evidence and said it was solid evidence," said Chang. "But as I comment in my report, it is difficult if not impossible to prove connection between prayer and cure."
The local tribunal will be expected to make a judgment about the religious aspect. Not only are they asked to determine if the reported cure was extraordinary in nature and occurred without any possible medical or scientific explanation, they are also expected to venture an opinion about whether the person cured had a particular devotion to Damien that corresponded with the change in medical condition.
"It is like the pope calling and asking these Hawaii people, 'What do you think about it?'" said Vega Garcia.
The priest from Rome said he will urge Hawaii residents to get involved in the grass-roots sainthood cause. "When I was in Kalaupapa, I told them, 'You have to write to the Holy Father.' It is important to communicate in this way that there is interest in Father Damien."
There are at least 800 sainthood causes already pending before the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints, which will receive the local report and set it for further scrutiny by theologians and medical professionals.
"Everything could be simplified if people manifested interest," Vega Garcia said.
"I think Father Damien has a difference. In the whole world he is known."
That is a fact that is underscored each day at Kalaupapa. At least two dozen visitors make the trek to the remote spot daily, said the Rev. Joseph Hendriks, Catholic pastor at the settlement. "Last week, 29 people from Tahiti walked down from the pali, and 14 people were here from Japan. I talked to a student from Zimbabwe and a man from Iran."
Grimaldi said: "There is already a great deal of respect for Father Damien around the world. A lot of people believe in his power.
"The church is very slow when it comes to the extraordinary," Grimaldi said. "It will be slow in declaring this a miracle ... to be sure this is a reality.
"The church emphasizes that holiness is achieved through ordinary means of life. God works through us in ordinary ways. It's much harder to go day in, day out, following the way of the Lord."
The Catholic Church's process of making a saint has evolved through the centuries from a time when legendary heroes and martyrs were accepted without much verification. On June 13, 1992, Pope John Paul II approved an 1895 cure as a miracle as required for Damien's beatification, the step before canonization.
In that case, a French nun, Sister Simplicia Hue, 37, was dying of a long intestinal illness. After she began a novena to Father Damien, symptoms of the illness disappeared overnight on Sept. 11, 1895. She lived for 32 more years.
Her story, and the cause for Damien's sainthood, languished without attention for decades, in part because of politics in the Sacred Hearts religious order, which wanted its founder to be named a saint first.
Valley Hill Believers Continue Searching For Miracles
(SPRINGFIELD, Ky., April 24th, 2003, 6 p.m.) -- A quiet spot near Springfield, Kentucky, has been in the news off and on for the last 10 years. It's because of what some claim are miracles that happen in an area known as "Valley Hill." Is it a religious experience or a hoax? It depends on who you ask.
Valley Hill sits along a bubbling brook in Marion County. The splashing water and tall trees under a blue sky make it a very peaceful place.
But it's not just the peace and quiet that brings people there. They come hoping to see a miracle.
Angela Wimsatt from Bardstown says Valley Hill is "very special. You know something is going on here."
Hazel Spalding from Springfield has no doubt that the place holds special powers from above. "I had my rosary in my hand and it turned gold," she said. "I smelled roses but there was no rose bush."
Nowadays it's very quiet and peaceful at Valley Hill. But there was a time that it was packed with people after something unusual happened in April of 1995. Seven young girls and their Catholic education teacher who reported seeing spots of gold and even getting pictures of angels and the virgin Mary.
Robert Stack profiled the occurrence on NBC's "Unsolved Mysteries." Even though an "Unsolved Mysteries" expert debunked the visions and photographs, those at the center of the mystery stood by their story.
And the crowds grew large.
Today the large crowds are gone. People come and go, but now it's one or two at a time.
The mystery of Our Lady of Valley Hill seems to have died down. But it hasn't died away.
Among them, Amanda Terrell. We talked with her and her friends back in 1995 and eight years later her faith remains unshaken. "A lot of people don't believe me," she said. "I tell them the story and they just think you're crazy."
But Amanda still believes, and what she saw remains the keystones of her faith. "It gave me a more spiritual background," she said. "It made me feel like I was closer to God."
Although the crowds have diminished, Amanda is not alone. Many of the believers who were there in the spring of '95 still make a pilgrimage to the quiet corner in the Blue Grass -- and remember. They remain steadfast in what they saw. And how it's changed their lives.
"We seen spots all over each other," Mandy Mattingly of Springfield said. "The sun was just pulsating. It was a miracle. It was great."
And feeling closer to God may be what continues to bring people back. People who say they've known for years that the quiet spot on a bubbling brook on a wooded hillside is a spiritual journey that can lead to miracles.
"I know what happened, said Phyllis Filiatreau said. "I know what I got out of it, and I know what my daughter got out of it. It will stay with she and I both for the rest of our lives."
The woman who owns the land, Iona Wright, says the miracles are most likely to be seen the 2nd and 23rd of every month. Regardless of what people see or don't see, it's a quiet retreat in a very busy world.
Valley Hill Fields is located on Bloomfield Road near Springfield, Ky., north of Hwy. 55 and south of Hwy. 458.
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SATHYA SAI BABA - MIRACLES
The world-wide milk miracles: "... a sign that a great Soul has descended"
In 1995, this simultaneous, global miracle impressed even skeptics.
"He is going to flood the world with such happenings that the mind can never comprehend it." (Maitreya's associate in Share International, July 1992)
On Thursday 21 September the news swept around the world of the extraordinary miracles of milk-drinking Hindu statues. Never before in history has a simultaneous miracle occurred on such a global scale. Television, radio and newspapers eagerly covered this unique phenomenon, and even sceptical journalists held their milk-filled spoons to the gods - and watched, humbled, as the milk disappeared. The media coverage was extensive, and although scientists and 'experts' created theories of "capillary absorption" and "mass hysteria", the overwhelming evidence and conclusion was that an unexplainable miracle had occurred.
It all began at dawn in a temple on the outskirts of Delhi, India, when milk offered to a statue of Ganesh just disappeared into thin air. Word spread so quickly throughout India that soon thousands were offering milk to the gods and watching in amazement as it disappeared. Life in India was brought to a virtual standstill as people rushed to temples to see for themselves the drinking gods. Others claimed that small statues in millions of homes around the country were also drinking the offerings of milk.
At one of Delhi's largest temples, the Birla Mandir, Pandit Sunderlal wa just coming on duty at 5.30am when he got a call telling him of the miracle in the suburbs. "I went and took a spoon of milk and put it to Ganesh's mouth. He drank it and it became empty. Then I gave Shiva a drink too."
Traffic in Delhi was halted as police struggled to control crowds who gathered outside hundreds of temples with jugs and saucepans of milk for the marble statues of Ganesh, the Hindu God of wisdom and learning, and Shiva, his father, God the Destroyer in the Hindu trinity. Across Delhi, society ladies with silver jugs and tumblers full of milk were standing alongside uneducated labouring women in mile-long queues, awaiting their turn.
At one Delhi temple a priest said more than 5,000 people had visited his temple: "We are having a hard time managing the crowds." A Delhi housewife who had waited two hours to feed the white marble statue of Ganesh said: The evil world is coming to an end and maybe the Gods are here to help us." Even the cynical professed amazement. "It's unbelievable. My friends told me about it and I just thought it was rubbish," said a Delhi business woman, Mabati Kasori. "But then I did it myself. I swear that the spoon was drained " Parmeesh Soti, a company executive, was convinced it was a miracle. "It cannot be a hoax. Where would all that milk go to? It just disappeared in front of my eyes."
Suzanne Goldenberg, a Delhi-based journalist, reported that: "Inside the darkened shrine, people held stainless steel cups and clay pots to the central figure of the five-headed Shiva, the destroyer of evil, and his snake companion, and watched the milk levels ebb. Although some devotees force-fed the idol enthusiastically, the floor was fairly dry." India was in pandemonium. The Government shut down for several hours, and trading ground to a halt on stock markets in Bombay and New Delhi as millions in homes and temples around the country offered milk to the gods.
Very soon the news spread to Hindu communities in Singapore, Hong Kong, Nepal, Thailand, Dubai, the United Kingdom, the USA, and Canada. Reports were flooding in from all over the world. In Hong Kong more than 800 people converged on the Hindu temple in Happy Valley to witness the drinking statues of Krishna and Brahma alongside the small silver statue of Ganesh which priests claimed had drunk 20 litres of milk.
In the United Kingdom, Hindus reported miracles taking place in temples and homes around the country. At the Vishwa Temple in Southall, London, 10,000 people in 24 hours witnessed the 15-inch statue of the bull Nandi and a bronze statue of the cobra Shash Naag drinking milk from cups and spoons. Sushmith Jaswal, aged 20, said she was sceptical at first but her doubts vanished with the milk. "It was like a blessing," she said. Nita Mason also witnessed the statue and said, "It is a miracle - God is trying to show people that he is here." Girish Desai, a bank worker from Edgware, said: "I had heard reports but didn't believe it. But I experienced it myself. I held a spoonful of milk to the lips of one of the idols ... and the statue started sipping it. The milk disappeared as I watched it."
At the Geeta Bhavan Temple in Manchester a three-inch silver Ganesh lapped up the milk. Rakesh Behl, 35, fed the silver elephant several times and said: "Did you see how quickly Ganesh drank? How can anyone not believe this miracle? This has really inspired my faith." At the Southall home of Asha Ruparelia, 42, a clay statue of Ganesh was drinking the milk in her living room: "It has drunk 20 pints of milk since last night. Nearly 600 people have come round to see it." Another amazing manifestation occurred at a major Hindu temple in Wimbledon, South London. There, milk offerings to the statue of Ganesh disappeared, and, simultaneously, in a shrine room containing a large photograph of Sai Baba, vibhuti (holy ash) poured from Sai Baba's forehead, and amrit (nectar) flowed from His feet.
Many journalists actively participated in these miraculous events. Rebecca Mae, a Daily Express journalist, wrote: "I had a good view from the side and all I can say is that the statue appeared to suck in half a spoonful while it was held level by the worshipper. The rest was sipped reverently by the devotee. A photographer from a national tabloid newspaper was right in front of the statue. And he was convinced it was drinking the milk. He said he could see no mechanism to explain the phenomenon, after scrutinizing it at length. As a lapsed Catholic I don't believe in stories of the Virgin Mary shedding tears. Indeed, I would say I was as sceptical as anyone -- but it's difficult to dismiss something you have seen for yourself."
Journalist Suzanne O'Shea also witnessed the miracle. "Following the example of others I knelt on the floor beside the statue of the bull and placed a dessert spoon filled with milk beside its mouth, steadying it with both hands. Within seconds the milk had virtually vanished, leaving just a drop in the spoon that was emptied into my hands so that I could bless myself. I tried a second time, and again the milk seemed to vanish from the spoon
within seconds."
Rikee Verma, a journalist from The Times newspaper, wrote: "Being a religious person, I first went to the upstairs bedroom ... and placed a spoonful of milk against a photograph of Ganesh and was astonished to find within seconds that the spoon was half empty. I checked to make sure that the glass frame of the photograph was not wet. It was dry. I could not believe what I was seeing. This was clearly a message from the gods saying: We are here, here's the proof.' I then went to the Sri Ram Mandir [Temple] in Southall.... I placed a spoonful of milk underneath the trunk and within seconds the spoon was empty.... Others who had witnessed the miracle were filled with emotion. 'Our god has finally come to us,' one said."
While the media and scientists still struggle to find an explanation for these events, many Hindus believe they are a sign that a great teacher has been born. Journalist Rebecca Mae writes: "Most of the worshippers said they only went to the temple occasionally and were certainly not religious fanatics. But they were adamant that a new god had been born to save the world from evil." Krishna Anratar Dubey, a respected Indian astrologer, explained that according to Hindu mythology such miracles happen when a great Soul arrives in the world.
At the Southall temple in London where thousands had witnessed the miracles, the chairman Mr Bharbari offered his explanation. "All I know is that our Holy Book says that wherever evil prevails on earth then some great Soul will descend to remove the bondage of evil so that right shall reign. We believe this miracle, and those happening at other Hindu temples, may be a sign that a great Soul has descended, like Lord Krishna or Jesus Christ."
(Sources: The Guardian; The Independent; The Times; The Telegraph; The Daily Express; The Daily Mail; UK)
(Benjamin Creme's Master has explained that Maitreya and a group of Masters were responsible for these manifestations, while Sai Baba, himself, created the vibhuti and amrit which flowed from his photograph in the Wimbledon temple. He also predicts that there will be even more amazing miracles in the very near future. These 'signs' are events coordinated with the imminent appearance of Maitreya on television. In his article in Share International July 1992, Benjamin Creme's Master forecast: "In time, even biased and cynical media will find it difficult to gainsay the experience of thousands that the 'age of miracles' has no end.")
From the November 1995 issue of Share International
Legend of saint holds a blessing in disguise
By Ken McCormack
email: newsdesk@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
SAINT Murrough O'Heaney lies at rest in the ancient graveyard of Banagher Church just outside Dungiven. Close by he has the most unlikely of companions in Shane Crossagh the notorious highway man, hanged in Derry's Diamond in 1721.
Crossagh's claim to fame was a 25ft jump across the Ness waterfall to escape dragoons who had cornered him. Yet the highwayman's feat in no way matches the enduring power of the revered O'Heaney.
Local tradition holds that the sand from the saint's tomb has miraculous powers. T ales abound of how it brings good fortune to those who possess it with success claimed in lawsuits, property deals, examinations, even the sport of kings.
And apparently it just takes a pinch of the sand to do the trick. The church at Banagher goes back to the fifth century but it was to be another 700 years before the arrival of St Murrough.
The story goes that he intended to build at another site, when an eagle swooped from the sky, plucked a stone from the ground and deposited it on the hill at Banagher. From about 1150AD, old manuscripts mention St Murrough's extraordinary deeds.
One of these was the taming of a giant serpent that frequented the nearby Owenreagh burn. Afterwards, folks from all arts and parts came to get the old man's blessing. But it was not until he died that his powers really came to the fore.
His next of kin, the O'Heaneys discovered that the sand from the grave brought unbelievable good luck. Even more people flocked to Banagher and out of this grew the ritual of 'lifting the sand', to which O'Heaney descendants of the saint claimed entitlement.
St Murrough's tomb resembles a miniature church built of neatly dressed stone.
Such structures are known as mortuary houses, with this one at Banagher being the best of its kind in Northern Ireland. It has been sitting here undisturbed for 800 years, a small opening in the side allows access for the sand lifting ritual.
Once the Banagher sand has been lifted by an O'Heaney there are set customs about its usage. For example, in law suits, when the adversary turns his back the possessor must throw some of the sand towards his upper body. In the case of examinations, long journeys, or even a flutter on the horses, a little of the sand is kept on one's person. The sand is also said to ward off spells and to send 'Old Nick' packing. This last claim gave rise to the saying 'That beats Banagher' and 'Banagher beats the devil.'
Banagher Church is also famous in history for the visit in 1397 of Archbishop Colton, Primate of Ireland. Colton came to Derry to chastise the monks in the monastery for their bad behaviour. On the way back to Armagh, he was asked to stop off at Dungiven to make judgement on two men who had abandoned their wives. For a couple of days he put up with very ill-tempered behaviour on the part of the protagonists. However, since there is no mention of a resolution to any of the cases, it looks as if the parties forgot about the powerful sand just outside the church door.
As for St Murrough's unlikely companion at Banagher, Shane Crossagh, it is said he took the secret of his buried treasure with him to the grave.
Apparently, not too far away, lies a foal skin full of gold coins amassed by the bold highwayman before and after his great leap at the Ness falls. It is tempting to wonder if a pinch of the sand in the right hands might lead someone to Crossagh's precious hoard, of course the snag is that the sand must be lifted by one of St Murrough O'Heaney's direct descendants. Nonetheless, maybe it's time to commence the search.
Nun credited with sub miracle
Friday, June 6, 2003 Posted: 2051 GMT ( 4:51 AM HKT)
DUBROVNIK, Croatia (AP) -- Marija "The Crucified" Petkovic was born into a prosperous and devout Roman Catholic family on the Croatian Adriatic island of Korcula on December 10, 1892.
Even as a young girl, she is said to have been concerned about the welfare of children.
She attended school in a convent, and as a teenager taught religion and basic subjects to the children of the poor laborers working her father's land.
At 14, Petkovic was engaged to be married, but at 22, she began to sense a call to religious life.
Encouraged by the bishop of Dubrovnik, she and five other young women founded the Community of the Daughters of Charity, caring for impoverished children as well as the sick and the elderly.
Petkovic went on to establish an orphanage and sent missionaries to South America, where she herself worked for 12 years.
In 1952, she went to Rome, where she died in 1966.
The Vatican has authenticated a miracle attributed to Petkovic -- the saving of a Peruvian navy submarine struck by a Japanese fishing boat in 1988 just off Peru's seacoast.
A junior officer praying to the nun for help managed to prevent the sub from sinking and rescued sailors trapped deep in the hold.
Petkovic is the first Croatian woman to be beatified, the last step before possible sainthood.
80 Miracles Worked by Reverend Seraphim
06/23/2003 17:00
Seraphim was canonized in 70 years after his death in presence of the Russian Emperor Nicolas II and the Royal Family
The Sarov Monastery stands at the confluence of the Sarovka River and the Satis River. The first official name of the monastery consists of the names of both rivers. The name of the city of Sarov goes from the Mordovian language; it means either "a waterlogged place" or "a crotch". News about the monastery spread very quickly, it was already popular when hieromonk Johannes (known as Ivan Popov in the world) headed the monastery. In 1692, in about 1-1.5 years after visiting the Sarov mountain Johannes started digging out a cave on the mountain slope. This is how famous Sarov caves first appeared; the caves survived to our time. Once when Johannes got tired of work and fell asleep he dreamt of visiting the Kiev-Pechora monastery. In the dream, Metropolitan blessed Johannes for further digging of the cave. It was Metropolitan Illarion who had started digging of the Kiev caves.
Starting with 1705, hieromonk Johannes devoted his life to restoration of the Sarov Monastery. Within the period of 1731-1741, Dorofei was the superior of the monastery; at that very time the Assumption Church was built that became the first one made of stone in the city of Sarov.
Reverend Seraphim of Sarov (known as Prokhor Moshnin in the world) is one of the most respected saints in the Russian Orthodox Church; he was born in 1754 in the Russian city of Kursk. He joined the Sarov monastery lay brothers in 1778. In 8 years of studies in the monastery, he was made a monk and was named Seraphim. He was conferred the order of hieromonk. Seraphim withdrew to his hermitage situated 5 miles away from the Sarov monastery where he kept the fast, spent time in work and prayers. Then he took a three-year vow of silence which resulted in absolute seclusion later. When Reverend Seraphim abandoned the seclusion, he received pilgrims for confession, giving admonitions and for curing. On some holy days Reverend Seraphim received up to several thousands of pilgrims. Seraphim of Sarov made much effort to improve and enlarge the Diveyevskaya women's community and transformed it into a special Seraphim-Diveyevskaya community. Seraphim's relics were opened up on July 19, 1903. Seraphim was canonized in 70 years after his death. The canonization ceremony took place in the city of Sarov in presence of the Russian Emperor Nicolas II and the Royal Family. The relics were available for worshippers in the Sarov monastery.
Ten years before the canonization, an order was issued to collect and systematize facts about wonders, miraculous healings and signs worked by hieromonk Seraphim. A list of wonders and healings worked by Seraphim was compiled by 1892 and submitted to a special commission in the city of Tambov for consideration. The commission verified the facts mentioned on the list and issued a new document consisting of 80 instances of miraculous healing worked by Seraphim. In 1895, the protocol was submitted to the synod. However, already by that time monk Seraphim was considered a wonderworker among ordinary people.
The monastery was closed in the 1920s and the relics of Reverend Seraphim were removed to the city of Ardatov where were lost. Only in the year of 1991 the relics were discovered in the stock of the State Museum of the History of Religion situated in St.Petersburg's Kazan Cathedral. In summer of 1991, a religious procession was started to deliver the relics to the Seraphim-Diveyevsky monastery in the Nizhny Novgorod region. As for the Sarov monastery, it was turned into a labor settlement for homeless children in 1928, in the years when the number of homeless children boosted after the Great October Revolution. Labor was chosen as the most effective punishment and treatment there.
Man credits God for saving his life
Sep 18 2003 12:00AM
By DAVE BROOKS
OF THE REGISTER-PAJARONIAN
Aromas resident Larry Oyler said he was miraculously cured from brain cancer by one of the most mysterious healers in the universe - God.
That's the only way Oyler could explain the unusual turn of events that recently showed up in a supermarket tabloid article. The Aug. 14 edition of the Sun reported that Oyler, who was stricken with an abnormally large tumor in his left lobe, woke up one morning and found that his tumor had mysteriously disappeared.
In an interview with Register-Pajaronian, Oyler confirmed the article's reporting, and said his reprieve was an act of God.
"Everything in that article is true," Oyler said. "It truly was a miracle."
Oyler's story traces back to nearly 18 months ago when he was diagnosed with cancer. The middle-aged crane rigger and mechanic began suffering from terrible headaches, so bad he could barely function.
A MRI of Olyer was taken at Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto, revealing a massive tumor in his brain. Surgeons at the hospital told Oyler that he must immediately undergo a very dangerous operation if we wanted to survive the cancer.
"I was pretty scared," he said. "I didn't know if my family was ever going to see me again. Plus the doctors told me that there was a possibility that the surgery could turn me into vegetable. The thought of never being able to care for myself was extremely frightening."
Oyler agreed to undergo the surgery, but changed his mind just hours before the scheduled operation was set to happen. His doctors, a bit angry, agreed to reschedule the operation, but once again Oyler skipped out at the last second.
"They were extremely angry with me at this point and said that I would not be allowed to undergo surgery again," Oyler said.
Instead, Oyler went home and prayed. All day long he begged God for some reprieve from the horrible pain he was feeling.
"The next morning I awoke and I felt so clear headed," he said. "It was as if a great weight had been lifted on my shoulders. It was then I knew that God had intervened and had performed a miracle."
Oyler had another MRI, and sure enough the tumor had disappeared.
Doctors at the hospital are still skeptical about Oyler's miracle and haven't yet released him to work. Oyler said he's just happy to be alive.
"I feel renewed and reinvigorated. This has changed my life," he said. "I thank God for letting me live and making me the happiest man alive.
'What else could it have been but a miracle?'
Rene Caisse died 25 years ago without gaining the recognition some cancer survivors believe she deserved. Without Essiac, her mysterious remedy, they wouldn't be alive today, they tell ROY MacGREGOR
By ROY MacGREGOR
Saturday, December 13, 2003 - Page F8
BRACEBRIDGE, ONT. -- These days, when she looks back at her remarkable, and largely unexpected, long life, Iona Hale will often permit herself a small, soft giggle.
She is 85 now, a vibrant, spunky woman with enough excess energy to power the small off-highway nursing home she now lives in at the north end of the Muskoka tourist region that gave the world Norman Bethune and, Iona Hale will die believing, possibly something far more profound.
A possible cure for cancer.
Twenty-seven years ago, Mrs. Hale sat in Toronto's Princess Margaret Hospital and heard that terrifying word applied to her own pitiful condition. She was 58, and had already dropped to 75 pounds when her big, truck-driver husband, Ted, finally got her in to see the specialists who were supposed to know why she had stopped eating and was in such terrible pain.
Mrs. Hale remembers awakening in the recovery room after unsuccessful surgery and being told by a brusque nurse, "You're not going to live long, you know, dear."
"That's what you think!" she snapped back.
Ted Hale had often heard stories of a secret "Indian" medicine that an area nurse had supposedly used to cure cancer patients, but he had no idea where it could be found. He had asked a physician, only to be told, "That damned Essiac -- there's nothing to it."
When they returned to their home near Huntsville, Ont. -- with instructions to come back in three weeks, if Mrs. Hale was still around -- Mr. Hale set out to find the mysterious medicine. With the help of a sympathetic doctor, he discovered Rene Caisse, a Bracebridge nurse who claimed to have been given the native secret back in 1922. Pushing 90 and in ill health, she agreed to give him one small bottle of the tonic, telling him to hide it under his clothes as he left.
Mr. Hale fed his wife the medicine as tea, as instructed, and it was the first thing she was able to keep down. A few radiation treatments intended to ease the pain seemingly had no effect, but almost immediately after taking the Essiac, she felt relief. When the painkillers ran out and Mr. Hale said he would go pick up more, she told him, "Don't bother -- get more of this."
Twice more, he returned to get Essiac, the second time carrying a loaded pistol in case he had to force the medicine from the old nurse. He got it, and, according to Mrs. Hale, "the cancer just drained away." She returned to Toronto for one checkup -- "The doctor just looked at me like he was seeing a ghost" -- and never returned again.
"What else could it have been," Mrs. Hale asks today, "but a miracle?"
There is nothing special to mark the grave of Rene Caisse.
It lies in the deepening snow at the very front row of St. Joseph's Cemetery on the narrow road running north out this small town in the heart of Ontario cottage country, a simple grave with a dark stone that reads: "McGaughney Rene M. (Caisse) 1888-1978, Discoverer of 'Essiac,' Dearly Remembered."
On Dec. 26, it will be 25 years since Rene -- pronounced "Reen" by locals -- Caisse died. But in the minds of many people with cancer, the great question of her life has continued on, unanswered, well beyond her death. Did she have a secret cure for the disease?
Ms. Caisse never claimed to have a "cure" for cancer, but she did claim to have a secret native formula that, at the very least, alleviated pain and, in some cases, seemed to work what desperate cancer sufferers were claiming were miracles.
She had discovered the formula while caring for an elderly Englishwoman who had once been diagnosed with breast cancer and, unable to afford surgery, turned instead to a Northern Ontario Ojibwa medicine man who had given her a recipe for a helpful tonic.
The materials were all found locally, free in the forest: burdock root, sheep sorrel, slippery elm bark, wild rhubarb root and water.
The woman had taken the native brew regularly and been cancer-free ever since.
Ms. Caisse had carefully written down the formula as dictated, thinking she might herself turn to this forest concoction if she ever developed the dreaded disease. She never did, dying eventually from complications after breaking a hip, but she remembered the recipe when an aunt was diagnosed with cancer of the stomach and given six months to live. The aunt agreed to try the tonic, recovered and went on to live 21 more years.
The aunt's doctor, R.D. Fisher, was intrigued enough that he encouraged Ms. Caisse to offer her remedy -- which she now called "Essiac," a reverse spelling of her name -- to others, and by 1926 Dr. Fisher and eight other physicians were petitioning the Department of Health and Welfare to conduct tests on this strange brew.
"We, the undersigned," the letter from the nine doctors read, "believe that the 'Treatment for Cancer' given by nurse R.M. Caisse can do no harm and that it relieves pain, will reduce the enlargement and will prolong life in hopeless cases."
Instead of opening doors, however, the petition caused them to slam. Health and Welfare responded that a nurse had no right to treat patients and even went so far as to prepare the papers necessary to begin prosecution proceedings.
But when officials were dispatched to see her, she talked them out of taking action, and for years after, officials turned a blind eye as she continued to disperse the tonic. She made no claim that it was medication; she refused to see anyone who had not first been referred by their regular physician; and she turned down all payment apart from small "donations" to keep the clinic running.
Her work attracted the attention of Dr. Frederick Banting, the discoverer of insulin, but an arrangement to work together foundered when he insisted they test the tonic first on mice, and Ms. Caisse argued that humans had more immediate needs.
Her problems with authority were only beginning. A 55,000-signature petition persuaded the Ontario government to establish a royal commission to look into her work, but the panel of physicians would agree to hear only from 49 of the 387 witnesses who turned up on her behalf -- and dismissed all but four on the grounds that they had no diagnostic proof. The commission refused to endorse Essiac, and a private member's bill that would have let her continue treating patients at her clinic fell three votes short in the legislature.
She quit when the stress drove her to the verge of collapse, moved north with her new husband, Charles McGaughney, and dropped out of the public eye. But not out of the public interest.
"You need proof?" laughs Iona Hale. "Just look at me -- I'm still here!"
Not everyone in the medical establishment dismissed Essiac. Ms. Caisse had permitted the Brusch Medical Center near Boston to conduct experiments after Dr. Charles Brusch, one-time physician to John Kennedy, inquired about the mysterious cure. Tests on the formula did show some promise on mice, and the centre eventually reported: "The doctors do not say that Essiac is a cure, but they do say it is of benefit." Dr. Brusch even claimed that Essiac helped in his own later battle with cancer.
Other tests, though, were less encouraging. In the early 1970s, Ms. Caisse sent some of her herbs to the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research in Rye, N.Y., but when early tests proved negative, she claimed Sloan-Kettering had completely fouled up the preparation and refused further assistance.
Through it all, she refused to disclose her recipe -- until a rush of publicity after a 1977 article in Homemaker's magazine persuaded her to hand over the formula to the Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario for safekeeping and to give a copy to the Resperin Corporation of Toronto in the hopes that, eventually, scientific proof would be found.
She died without gaining the recognition some cancer survivors believe she deserved, and in 1982, the federal government declared Resperin's testing procedures flawed and shut down further studies.
The story of Ms. Caisse's medicine carried on, however, with more and more people turning to the man who would have been her member of Parliament to see if he could help.
Stan Darling lives in the same nursing home as Iona Hale. Now 92, Mr. Darling spent 21 years in Ottawa as the Progressive Conservative member for Muskoka-Parry Sound. He's remembered on Parliament Hill for his crusades against acid rain, but of all his political battles, Mr. Darling says nothing compares to his fight to gain recognition for Rene Caisse's mysterious medicine.
"So many people came to me with their stories," he said, "that I couldn't help but say, 'Okay, there must be something to this.' "
Mr. Darling put together his own petition, 5,000 names, and went to the minister of health and argued that so many were now using Essiac it made sense to legalize it.
His bid failed, but he did persuade the medical bureaucrats to compromise: If Essiac were seen as a "tea" rather than a "drug," it could be viewed as a tonic, and so long as the presiding physician gave his approval, it could be added to a patient's care -- if only for psychological reasons. "On that basis," Mr. Darling says, "I said, 'I don't give a damn what you call it, as long as you let the people get it.' "
The doubters are legion. "There's no evidence that it works," says Dr. Christina Mills, senior adviser of cancer control policy for the Canadian Cancer Society. That being said, she says, "There is also little evidence of harmful side effects from it," but cautions anyone looking into the treatment to do so in consultation with their physician.
No scientific study of Essiac has ever appeared in an accepted, peer-reviewed medical journal. But those who believe say they have given up on seeing such proof.
Sue Best of Rockland, Mass., still vividly recalls that day 10 years ago when her 16-year-old son, Billy, sick with Hodgkin's disease, decided to run away from home rather than continue the chemotherapy treatments he said were killing him.
He was eventually found in Texas after a nationwide hunt and agreed to return home only if the treatments would cease and they would look into alternative treatments, including Essiac.
No one is certain what exactly cured Billy, but Ms. Best was so convinced Essiac was a major factor she became a local distributor of the herbal medicine.
Rene Caisse, she says, "spent a whole life trying to help people with a product she found out about totally by accident -- and being totally maligned all her life by the whole medical establishment in Canada."
In some ways, Ms. Caisse has had an easier time in death than in life. Today, there is a street in Bracebridge named after her, a charming sculpture of her in a park near her old clinic, and Bracebridge Publishing has released a book, Bridge of Hope, about her experiences.
The recognition is largely the work of local historian Ken Veitch, whose grandmother, Eliza, was one of the cancer-afflicted witnesses who told the 1939 royal commission: "I owe my life to Miss Caisse. I would have been dead and in my grave months ago." Instead, she lived 40 more years.
Don McVittie, a Huntsville businessman, is a grandnephew of Rene Caisse and says she used her recipe to cure him of a duodenal ulcer when he was 19. Now 71 and in fine health, he still has his nightly brew of Essiac before bed.
"There's something mentally satisfying about having a glass of it," he says. "I think of it more as a blood cleanser. That's what Aunt Rene always said it was. I think she'd be disappointed it hasn't been more accepted."
"Look," Ken Veitch says, "this all started back in the 1920s. And I've said a number of times that if there was nothing to it, it would be long gone.
"But there is something to it."
Roy MacGregor is a Globe and Mail columnist.
The secret revealed
Debate rages in Essiac circles about the correct recipe. The most accurate rendition likely comes from Mary McPherson, Rene Caisse's long-time assistant. Ms. McPherson, currently frail and living in a Bracebridge nursing home, swore an affidavit in 1994 in which she recorded the recipe in front of witnesses. It is essentially the same preparation distributed today by Essiac Canada International, which operates out of Ottawa. The formula appears below:
61/2 cups of burdock root (cut)
1 lb. of sheep sorrelherb, powdered
1/4 lb. of slipper elm bark, powdered
1 oz. of Turkish rhubarb root, powdered
Mix ingredients thoroughly and store in glass jar in dark, dry cupboard. Use 1 oz. of herb mixture to 32 oz. of water, depending on the amount you want to make. I use 1 cup of mixture to 256 oz. of water.
Boil hard for 10 minutes (covered), then turn off heat but leave sitting on warm plate overnight (covered).
In the morning, heat steaming hot and let settle a few minutes, then strain through fine strainer into hot sterilized bottles and sit to cool. Store in dark, cool cupboard. Must be refrigerated when opened.
Also see:
The Trouble With African Miracles
Kofi Akosah-Sarpong writes that in the mist of abject poverty, ignorance and some aspects of the African culture that promote superstition, miracles, like the ones reported in Ghana via satellite from a Nigeria preacher, should be approached thoughtfully.
People at a spiritual retreat at Asante-Mampong say their diverse illness have been healed at the end of a religious revival. The congregation, like most miracle seekers throughout the world, gazed at the sky while listening to the ministration of a Pastor William F. Kumuyi from Nigeria via satellite transmission. The Ghana News Agency (GNA) reported that among those who said they have been miraculously healed are Charity Amenya, 35, a teacher, who said she had received divine healing and that the fibroid she had lived with for the past 7 years has vanished, making her registration for surgical operation in January, 2004 unnecessary and Emmanuel Osei-Sarfo, 65, a paralyzed mason also said he has regained his strength and "started jumping and praising God to the stunned congregation.
In a continent where poverty is massive, resulting in weak sanitation/medical systems and a culture some of which aspects are troublingly mired in superstition, gullibility, and disturbing ignorance, the deep hope for miracles to cure diseases and other distresses is high, bordering on the tacky or fanatical. From the Gambia to South Africa, Africans believe in miracles are legendary. In West Africa, where spiritual churches are most prominent compared to other parts of Africa, people attend churches 24 hours a day with the hope of visions and miracles. Aside from the spiritual churches and the old, tied orthodox churches, juju and marabou mediums and witchdoctors abound, attracting miracle and vision seekers helpless in the face insurmountable distress. Miracle is invariably proportional to the nature of a society, the more traditional the society is such as Africa, the more the believe in miracles. The more scientific or modernized the society such as Canada, the less the believe in miracles.
As Boston University's Lance Morrow explains, "the realm of the miraculous sometimes lies just across the border from the fanatical or the tacky." As we see at either Ajenguli (Nigeria) or Makola (Ghana), most miracles can just be a street-side entertainment scene, drawing the unemployed, busybodies or the plain curious, ignorant that are too weak to think and explain their daily problems in clear terms. As West Africa shows, the boom in spiritual churches and the juju-marabou mediums have seen the commercialization of miracles, making it unsacred and undermining its divine nature. In South Africa's Soweto, confused young men who have HIV/AIDS have been told by spiritual mediums that if they have sex with a virgin their disease will miraculously vanish. This has seen HIV/AIDS infected young men secretly entering villages at night and sneaking into homes and raping virgins with the hope of curing their disease. The result is massive infection of young women with HIV/AIDS. No doubt, South Africa is one of the leading HIV/AIDS infected societies in the world.
Throughout Africa and the rest of the world, as Morrow explains, "the territory of the miraculous" are "approached carefully, by stages, passing from the gaudiest, shabbiest outer display toward what may, occasionally, turn out to be a deeper truth." We see this in one of the most remarkable miracles in Africa (and the world) in the legendary Okomfo Anokye. In a stage-by-stage preparation towards commanding of a Golden Stool from the sky to unite the disparaging Asantes, Okomfo Anokye observed the deep disunity among the Asantes. He assembled the slaves, families, clans, and tribes, cut their fingernails, burns them, mixed the ashes with some herbs and uttered some prayers. A miracle: a Golden Stool came down from the sky and used as unifier among what is now called the Asantes. The result, or rather the truth, today is the Asante ethnic group, one of the largest in the world.
Despite miracles such as Okomfo Anokye's, experts in divinity and theology caution against miracles, more so in an Africa where poverty is high and some aspects of the culture is entrapped in high irrationality. The juju-marabou medium that helped the various coup makers topple democratic and elected governments in Africa will tell you they are miracle makers. The juju-marabou, witchdoctors and other spiritualists that aid armed robbers in criminal activities work in the same notion. But the practical truth is that the juju-marabou medium's miracle borders on subverting a structural system, and, as West Africa shows today, undermining development (West Africa is the poorest region in the world partly because of the activities of juju, marabou, 'spiritualists' and witchdoctors). "A lot more people testified they had been healed of their various ailments and others said they received inner peace for their souls," reported GNA, but a Dr. Samuel Adjei, Afigya-Sekyere District Director of Health Services, said to be a member of the church, confirmed the Asante-Mampong miracles "but asked them to go for medical check up." What Dr. Adjei is saying is that miracles have to be proved beyond all reasonable doubt since there is the potential for hallucination.
Morrow explains, "A miracle is a wonder, a beam of supernatural power injected into history. Up There descends Down Here for an instant. The world connects to a mysterya happening that cannot be explained in terms of ordinary life." Morrow asks whether miracle is "an external event occurring in the real, objective world? Or is it a sort of hallucination, an event of the imagination? Morrow says the noblest miracles that arise from creativity such as Okomfo Anokye's are events of the imagination. If miracles are events of the imagination it will be hard for a society part of which culture believe miracles are from some supernatural powers. If miracle occurs it means it negates the general rule of cause and effect. What informs the imagination or the objective world when miracles occur? Is the hunger for miracles driven by extreme distress or some aspects of ones culture that feeds on unrealistic yearnings to solve a problem? It is such uncertainties that make some people skeptical about miracles, saying there is are no miracles.
Despite all these, miracles do occur, creation itself is a miracle. Our existence itself is a miracle. Just like Pastor William F. Kumuyi sparking miracles in a village in Ghana from Nigeria via satellite transmission, the computer I am using in writing this essay and when finished sending the essay by e-mail is itself a miracle. In West African believe system, Jerry Rawlings, a two-time coup-maker, and Siaka Stevens, a dog-catcher who became President of Sierra Leone, are miracles of some sort, and so is Kwame Nkrumah and his Pan African visions. As Morrow educates us "a miracle makes an opening in the wall that separates this world and another. Divinity, another dimension, may flow through the aperture. A dark force could pass through the aperture as well. Or the whole thing may be only a magic trick."
Though what pass through the aperture, whether divinity or a dark force or a magical trick is informed by a society's culture, in all measure, the true miracle, which cut across all cultures, is love, and as Morrow says "cannot be faked." This is what informed Jesus Christ's 35 miracles and that of Okomfo Anokye and our everyday existence.
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