3 Modern Miracles Attributed to Ven. Pius XII
Pius XII has long been maligned for nearly 5 decades as pope during the Second World War, he was also my grandparents’ pope during their childhoods, and with Pope Francis’ announcement in 2019 of the opening of the late pontiff’s archives in the following year starting from 1939–1958 are going to be available to historians and scholars, I am impatient. I am excited for everyone to find out what he had done during the Holocaust, and yet there’s also a matter of his meeting with Croatian fascist Antje Pavelic who was responsible for the Ustase genocide. No one knows if the late pontiff was in support of this and I for one would like to know, but there have been so few English books published on this subject to give us a full understanding of what really happened. We know that popes aren’t perfect, they are fallible, and only when they speak in ex-cathedra are they infallible. Knowing this puts more of my faith in God rather than humans.
Now back to the matter of three modern miracles attributed to the late pontiff, and while these have been unconfirmed for now, there’s a chance that this may help him with his canonization as a saint…after his archives open of course!
First Miracle: found in CathNews
In 2005, a 31-year-old teacher was expecting her third child in the city of Castellammare di Stabia. She began to have strong pains, which after many tests and a biopsy, signaled the presence of Burkitt’s lymphoma. The condition is typified by swollen lymph nodes, often starting in the abdominal region, and the cancer can spread to bone marrow and spinal fluid. Her health and the health of her child was in danger.
The woman’s husband first prayed for the intercession Pope John Paul II, who reportedly appeared to him in a dream.
The spouse described to Tornielli what he saw that night, “He had a serious face. He said to me, ‘I can’t do anything, you must pray to this other priest…’ He showed me the image of a thin, tall, lean priest. I didn’t recognize him; I didn’t know who he might be.”
Several days passed before he, “by chance,” came across a picture of Pope Pius XII in a magazine and recognized him as the man John Paul II had shown him in the dream.
The man prayed for Pius XII’s intercession. Following her very first treatments, the woman’s tumor disappeared. She was cured so quickly that her doctors pondered the notion that they may have originally misdiagnosed the pathology.
The tests and charts were re-consulted and the initial diagnosis was confirmed.
A local news source, the Sorrento & Dintorni, said a Tribunal has been organized by Archbishop Felice Cece of Sorrento-Castellammare to determine the nature of the occurrence and whether it will move on to the Vatican.
Second Miracle: found in papapioxii.it
JON IS HOSPITALIZED
My nephew, Jon, went into the ER on Sunday March 23rd, 2014 because he was starting to have trouble breathing after a couple of days of just not feeling good, cough and on and off fever. They admitted him to the hospital with a diagnosis of influenza and secondary pneumonia. They started him on antibiotics and were monitoring his oxygen levels closely.
Through the course of the first night, they were concerned with the oxygen levels in his blood…they were too low. Monday they put him on a CPAP machine and continued to monitor him. Monday night, they were not happy with the way his oxygen levels remained low, despite measures being done to help him with that. It was recommended at that time that he be put on a ventilator to assist him in getting oxygen throughout his whole lungs. The influenza virus had attacked his lungs and caused a lot of inflammation to the lung tissues along with collecting fluid in the lungs that was blocking air from getting where it needed to go.
He was put on the vent and moved to the TLC unit at UW Hospital by Tuesday morning. He continued to degenerate until, finally, a decision was made to put Jon on ECMO. ECMO stands for Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation. It draws deoxygenated blood from the right aorta, pumps it out of the body through a machine that oxygenates it, then pumps it back into the right ventricle for the heart to then pump it out to the body. The purpose of this is to give Jon’s lungs a chance to rest and heal, letting the ECMO do the work his lungs would do for him. It would cleanse the retained carbon dioxide and give him oxygenated blood to pump through his body. I was later told that the ECMO is a very extreme measure, and the mortality rate is quite high for those who reach this point.
Our family spent many hours together in the waiting room during that period of time, and my sister, Mary (Jon’s mom), never left him. I was asking close friends to pray for him. On Thursday, April 3, an article appeared in a Catholic newspaper that was about a priest with ALS (Fr. Benjamin Reese) who was promoting the canonization of Pope Pius XII. Fr. Reese also had a great devotion to St. Joseph, so we chose to pray the Memorare to St. Joseph.
Also, Jon was given a very rare and incredibly beautiful image of Divine Mercy that Thursday. It was recently discovered in an Adoration Chapel at St. Mary’s in Burlington, Wisconsin. It turns out it is a third of now three original images painted before the ban in 1959. It was painted here, in Wisconsin, in the 1950s, by a very talented artist, Sr. Mary Luciana Kolasiski. Only three copies had been made from the original, and Jon received one to hang in his room. The medical staff commented that it is the most beautiful image of Jesus they have ever seen.
BAD FRIDAY
The day we almost lost Jon was on a Friday, April 4 (with Holy Week nearing, the family dubbed this, “Bad Friday”). The doctors explained to his mom and dad that they needed to take him off of blood thinners to stop very bad internal bleeding. They said that would clog the ECMO and his lungs would not be able to oxygenate his blood, and he would very likely pass. It was a lose-lose situation — if they did not take him off of the blood thinners, he would bleed to death, if they did take him off of the blood thinners, the ECMO machine would clog. My sister later shared that the doctors gave him a .5% chance of survival, only because they never want to say, “never.”
I was in the waiting room when my sister and her family returned, in tears, from that meeting with doctors. Once I heard this very grim prognosis, I took off from there and went to the trauma center and stood at Jon’s door praying 15 decades of the rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet, with the intercession of Venerable Pope Pius XII. I looked up and saw it was the three o’clock hour on Friday. Just then, I received a very vivid image, in my mind, that the Blessed Mother received this petition, and placed it on a golden platter, and brought it to the throne of God. A confidence — trust — came over me, and I returned to my sister to tell her “this would not end in death.” She looked up at me, as if to say, “What do you know?”
We quickly asked everyone to pray the Memorare to St. Joseph, with the intercession of Venerable Pius XII. Thanks to social media, thousands around the world were praying this way for Jon!!
The next morning, I received no reports about Jon before heading over to early morning Mass. After Mass, I finally took some time to try to prepare a weekend homily. I was astounded to read that the Gospel was the Raising of Lazarus!! And then I read the passage where Jesus said, “This illness will not end in death, but will give glory to God” … almost the very words I spoke to my sister the day before, when things were looking their worst. At that exact moment, I started receiving messages from ecstatic family members who said Jon did a 180 during the night, and the ECMO machine was not clogging as anticipated.
Jon continued to make steady gains as they weened him off of the ECMO. They finally removed it on Wednesday of Holy Week. His lungs, miraculously, began to far exceed the best doctor’s anticipations. Dr. Love (a renowned expert of the ECMO) told my sister, “You have a 100% supernatural miracle on your hands … we not only took him off blood thinners, but added coagulants … there is no explaining why that machine did not clog, or why Jon’s lungs began to heal so quickly.”
HOLY THURSDAY
My nephew, Jon, was able to speak for the first time today. He said, “What happened?” He had to be trained to swallow, so no solid food just yet. So, immediately following Holy Thursday Mass, I brought the Precious Blood of Jesus to Jon in an eye dropper. The first bit of nourishment to cross his lips after this amazing miracle was THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF JESUS ON HOLY THURSDAY! I told him that it was Mary who brought our prayers to the throne of God at that three o’clock hour on that amazing miraculous Friday. I said to him, “Jon, Behold your mother!”
GOOD FRIDAY
Jon began to speak even more. Jon asked, “What are my goals today.” After they told him, he said, “I’ll exceed them!” That’s right, on Good Friday, Jon faced his Calvary with resolve and courage!! The night before, I was with him, around 9:30 PM (after Holy Thursday Mass), and they let me give him a few drops of the Precious Blood of Christ. I told him he was “out” for a while, and I told him how amazingly strong he is! (and we know that is supernatural strength he’s wielding). It truly WAS a Good Friday!!
HOLY SATURDAY
Jon continued to make AWESOME strides in his recovery. He was determined to get better and go home. Jon’s #1 phrase was …”what’s next?” He repeatedly asked what was the next step in getting him better. He said, “I’ll doing anything to get out of here!” This, on the day we commemorate Christ in his tomb … WOW!!
EASTER SUNDAY
RCMHeisnothereEaster Sunday — new life, a time of 2nd chances. That’s exactly what we continued to witness in Jon’s recovery. And if that’s not enough, that day we witnessed his rising! After my Easter Sunday Masses, I walked into the Trauma Center to look for Jon, and the entire staff looked up at me with huge smiles and said, “He is not here!” (Matthew 28:6). Literally…on Easter morning … he rose to the 5th floor, Acute Medical/Progressive Care Unit. Jon has moved UP to a step-DOWN unit.
Thank you, God! Thank you, Blessed Mother! Thank you, St. Joseph! Thank you, Pope Pius XII! And, thanks to all the wonderful prayer warriors!!
Ad majorem Dei gloriam!
Third Miracle: found on Reddit from last year
Hi there folks, sorry I was busy working! My story is pretty short and the same as the one in the title. Months ago I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. I had heightened levels of hormones that were (and still are, as I heal) wreaking havoc on my life. My doctor ruled out any idiopathic causes, medication, lifestyle, etc., and a further blood test confirmed that I did indeed have a brain tumor. The waitlist for the MRI was incredibly long, as the healthcare system in my country is a mess at the moment. After finally getting an appointment, it was canceled due to covid, and I eventually had to go for a private MRI, which was very costly and not covered by my insurance. Thankfully my family helped with the costs, as this whole thing has been very costly and I’m a young engaged man who is still in school and not making much money; I’m also trying to save up for my marriage which I know will be costly.
I waited anxiously, eating ramen (student budgets lol), and praying hard. Every day I wore my Pope Pius XII medal around my neck, did novenas, and asked him to pray for me. My other patrons at this time were the Holy Family and St. Christopher, who I ask daily to help me cross the rivers of this life, just as he did with Christ.
I got the results back and was awe-struck. My doctor was incredibly confused. There are all signs pointing to the tumor having just… disappeared. I’m still in the healing process and now I need to work with an endocrinologist to ‘heal up’ and get myself back to baseline, but I was overjoyed. My Doctor didn’t understand at all, as there we had ruled out everything else. The tumor just.. disappeared, left my pituitary gland, with no surgery, medication, or even major dietary changes. This isn’t, to me, a case of “mind over matter”, but rather a case of prayer, faith, and trusting in God and the Saints to help see me through. I also feel a tremendous amount of guilt, as one of my best friends passed away a few years ago at the age of 21 years of age from brain cancer. I wonder why it was so easy for him, but not for me, and I like to think he’s looking over me. He was a brother in Christ and such an incredible, innocent, and pure young man that I just know he’s praying for me up there.
The road from here will still be long. The treatment will still be expensive to help me heal, but this most major of hurdles have just… disappeared. I know that now my funds will be going towards it, but not having to pay for the even more expensive tumor medication or neurosurgery is such a weight off my back. God bless you all.
Well there you have it folks! It is quite possible that the late pontiff’s canonization will come soon and by ‘soon’ I mean within the next few decades due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Do you think Pius XII should be canonized as a saint? Some of his predecessors have been canonized without a cultus of their own nor miracles attributed to them outside of Popes Paul VI (with one miracle instead of two) and John Paul II who had a cultus of his own and miracles attributed to him. Tell me more in the comments below!
