By Madalaine Elhabbal
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 10, 2024 / 09:30 am
The healing of a British World War I soldier at the Marian shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France has been proclaimed as the 71st miracle attributed to the pilgrimage site.
Archbishop Malcolm McMahon of Liverpool in England declared the miraculous healing of John Traynor, a soldier of the British Royal Navy, on Dec. 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception and the 81st anniversary of his death.
The Church has not recognized a miraculous event at Lourdes since 2018.
The news comes after the president of the Lourdes Office of Medical Observations, Dr. Alessandro de Franciscis, commissioned a review of Traynor’s case last year, which was undertaken by an English doctor and member of the International Medical Committee at Lourdes, Kieran Moriarty.
Moriarty’s investigations uncovered numerous files in the archives at Lourdes that included the testimonies of the three doctors who examined Traynor before and after his cure, along with other supporting evidence.
McMahon concluded during a canonical commission that based on the evidence assembled by Moriarty, Traynor’s healing was indeed miraculous.
“Given the weight of medical evidence, the testimony to the faith of John Traynor and his devotion to Our Blessed Lady, it is with great joy that I declare that the cure of John Traynor, from multiple serious medical conditions, is to be recognized as a miracle wrought by the power of God through the intercession of Our Lady of Lourdes,” the archbishop stated.
As we approach February 2025, the jubilee year, Archbishop McMahon of the archdiocese looks forward to a grand celebration at the metropolitan cathedral. This celebration will mark a significant moment in the history of the archdiocese, calling upon all of us to be ‘pilgrims of hope,’” McMahon expressed with anticipation.
Born in Liverpool, England in 1883, Traynor’s upbringing was marked by the loss of his Irish mother at a young age. Despite this tragedy, his mother’s unwavering faith and devotion to Mass and holy Communion stayed with him as a lasting memory and example. She was a daily Communicant when few people were,” Traynor recalled in a testimony featured on the shrine’s website.
Traynor served in the Royal Navy Reserve and was mobilized at the onset of World War I in 1914. He displayed remarkable courage during the battle at Antwerp, where he was wounded by shrapnel but swiftly recovered to return to duty.
On April 25, 1915, Traynor participated in a harrowing amphibious landing on the shores of Gallipoli as part of a failed attempt to capture the peninsula in Ottoman-occupied Turkey. Despite facing intense machine-gun fire from Turkish forces, Traynor, along with a handful of soldiers, managed to reach the shore.
Traynor bravely led the surviving coalition up the sandhill for over a week, escaping unscathed. However, his luck ran out on May 8, when he was struck by machine-gun bullets during a bayonet charge, leaving him paralyzed in his right arm and prone to epileptic attacks. Despite multiple surgeries to address his injuries, Traynor’s condition continued to deteriorate.
After eight years of struggling with his incapacitation, Traynor was scheduled for admission to a hospital for incurables.
