The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes: A Century of Miracles

Over the course of 164 years, bishops from the Catholic Church have acknowledged more than 70 medical miracles related to The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in southern France. Annually, four million pilgrims visit this modest town, drawn by tales of miraculous medical recoveries.

In 2022, correspondent Bill Whitaker explored the Lourdes Office of Medical Observations where esteemed doctors and researchers invest years in examining numerous claims of cures. They work to discern which cases current medical knowledge can explain and which ones remain mysterious.

At the time, Dr. Alessandro de Franciscis led the office in Lourdes. He was a former pediatrician and Harvard-trained epidemiologist, who held his position as president and resident physician until February 2026. Two additional medical miracles were recognized since the 60 Minutes team visited in 2022, raising the Catholic Church’s count of acknowledged miracles to 72.

“We [are] looking for a diagnosis and if that diagnosis is a diagnosis of a severe disease with a severe prognosis,” Dr. de Franciscis told 60 Minutes in 2022. “And then, we want to make sure that that person is a person that was cured in a way that one would say suddenly…in an instantaneous way, in a complete way, in a way lasting in time. And…my seventh criteria that has to match is there must be no possible explanation to that cure.”

The distinction between over 7,000 recorded claims and the 72 officially recognized miracles is founded on comprehensive medical documentation and the willingness of patients to subject their lives to thorough examination.

The medical cases considered miracles have undergone intense scrutiny. Critics note that medical science in the late 1800s lacked rigor, casting doubt on the strict interpretation of the office’s criteria over time. However, the office’s conclusions remain undisputed despite skepticism.

Dr. Esther Sternberg, a scholar in the mind-body connection and Research Director at the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, scrutinized the reliability of Lourdes’ medical records. Her findings, published in 2014 in the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, assert that as medical science progressed, so did the evaluation of unexplained cures.

She attested to the credibility of their conclusions during a conversation with 60 Minutes in 2022, noting that the Lourdes Office of Medical Observations continuously improved their diagnostic measures and lengthened follow-up durations.

While reporting on Lourdes in 2022, producers Nichole Marks and John Gallen located four living individuals whose medical miracles had been recognized. Vittorio Micheli overcame hip osteosarcoma in 1963; Sister Luigina Traverso was healed from near-total paralysis in 1965; in 1976, Delizia Cirolli’s cancerous knee tumor disappeared; and Sister Bernadette Moriau was cured of Cauda Equina in 2008. All reported being healthy and disease-free during their interviews with 60 Minutes.

The original video accompanying this story was published on December 18, 2022, produced by Keith Zubrow and edited by Sarah Shafer Prediger. Images of Vittorio Micheli and Sister Traverso were provided by the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes Archives.