By RAYMOND DE SOUZA, KM
Part 2
“And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand’.”
“Heal the sick, raise the dead, and cleanse the lepers, cast out demons” (Matt. 10:7-8).
It is evident that our Lord Jesus Christ gave to His disciples the power to perform miracles, and many of them did just that. Not all of them through the centuries received that power, but many did.
He even gave a much greater power to His apostles, the power to forgive sins! “And He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained’” (John 20:22-23). This power is immensely greater than the power to perform signs in nature.
But in His great generosity, He granted the power to perform miracles to countless saints in the Catholic Church. Let us see a few examples:
St. Francis of Assisi and St. Anthony of Padua became legendary through the countless miracles they performed, to the amazement of the people, such was the amazing variety of things they could do right over and above the laws of nature, just as Jesus, their Master, did.
Another Franciscan was St. Joseph of Cupertino, for whom the law of gravity did not mean much: He often levitated while celebrating the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which profoundly annoyed those who disliked him.
In Lebanon, St. Charbel Makhlouf cured a variety of people of their illnesses, some deemed incurable.
St. Padre Pio, who died in 1968, stunned the world by his power to read minds and hearts, by prophesying to people in the confessional, by reading and understanding languages he knew nothing about, and even by bilocating! (For those who may not know, a saint who has been given the power of bilocating can be and act in two places at the same time.)
Saintly women also performed miracles — no “sexism” in Heaven! St. Frances of Rome (died 1440) had the gifts of prophecy and healing, similar to St. Margaret of Cortona (d. 1297), St. Clare of Montefalco (d. 1308), St. Mary-Magdalen dei Pazzi (d. 1607), and St. Veronica Giuliani (d. 1727).
Then you have the incorrupt bodies of over 100 saints, which defy all the laws of nature and leave atheistic scientists completely puzzled, without knowing what to say.
St. Charbel Makhlouf’s body was hastily buried but maintained its total integrity even inside the tomb. No chemicals were added to help preserve the flesh, nothing.
St. Catherine of Bologna’s body has been sitting on a golden throne since 1463. I personally have been to see her body three times in the last 30 years. It is simply amazing!
Pope St. Pius X’s body rests under the first altar on the left-hand side of St. Peter’s Basilica, in full view of the public. St. Clare of Assisi is in her basilica and St. Bernadette Soubirous’ beautiful face leaves visitors stunned by its perfection. And so on, and so forth.
For those interested in knowing more about such prodigies, there is a very comprehensive book published by TAN Books appropriately titled The Incorruptibles, by J.C. Cruz, Illinois, 1977.
And the famous miraculous relics?
Apart from the incorrupt bodies of so many saints, God our Lord has been pleased to perform miracles through some of the saints’ relics. In 2 Kings 13:20-21 we read that the Prophet Eliseus (or Elisha, as in contemporary versions) died, and they buried him. “Now the bands of the Moabites would invade the land in the spring of the year. As they were burying a man, behold, they saw a marauding band; and they cast the man into the grave of Elisha. And when the man touched the bones of Elisha he revived and stood up on his feet.”
So, to see God performing miracles through relics of saints comes to us from as early as the good Old Testament. In the New Testament (Acts 19:12), we see that even some items touched by a saint could be used by God to perform a miracle: “So that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him [St. Paul] were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.” Wow! That’s Roman Catholicism at its best!
More: In Acts 5:15 we learn that the very shadow of the First Pope cured people! “People brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by.”
But God’s hand hasn’t been shortened (Isaiah 59:1) and in His love for us He continues to perform miracles through His saints’ relics. Haven’t you heard of the liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius (Gennaro, in Italian)? He was the bishop of Benevento, and was martyred by the pagans under the persecution of Diocletian, a Roman emperor.
After he was beheaded, a pious woman collected a little of his blood in two vials. Every year, three times, and especially on September 19, his feast day in the Calendar of Saints, at the Cathedral of Naples, before the gaze of thousands of astonished people, the blood liquefies! Oh, yes, it does!
If you ask me whether or not it is just hearsay, or if I have ever seen it myself with my own eyes, my reply is simple: Yes, I saw it! I was there in Naples three years ago and even held in my hands for a few seconds the vial containing the liquid blood of a saint who died 1,700 years ago! It was a remarkable, unforgettable experience!
And why was I there, you may ask? Well, that is my birthday — and I asked the cardinal of Naples to let me stay somewhere close to the front to have a good view of it. Naples is not only well-known for its good Pizza Napolitana, but also for the cardinal’s hospitality: His Eminence put me right by the mezzanine next to the altar, across the floor from the authorities and the nobility (ahem! ahem!). You can go on YouTube to see the event repeated many times.
True, our Catholic faith does not depend on miracles, since blessed are those who believe without having seen (John 20:29), but God our Lord, in His infinite solicitude, sometimes allows miracles of this nature to reward our faith.
But this topic is too good to end here. In the next article, more miracles!
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(Raymond de Souza is an EWTN program host; regional coordinator for Portuguese-speaking countries for Human Life International [HLI]; president of the Sacred Heart Institute, and a member of the Sovereign, Military, and Hospitaller Order of the Knights of Malta. His website is: www.RaymonddeSouza.com.)
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