Saint Therese of Lisieux: A Gateway

Photo of Marie-Paul Stevens, whose cure was certified as the miracle for the canonization of Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity. Released by the Dijon Carmel June 20, 2016

The story of the healing of Marie-Paul Stevens

The first photograph of Marie-Paul Stevens, the Belgian woman whose healing was accepted as the miracle for the canonization of Elizabeth of the Trinity (announced by Pope Francis today to take place on October 26, 2016) was released today by the Carmel of Dijon, with new details about her story.

Diagnosis with Sjogren's syndrome; treatment

In 1997 Marie-Paul Stevens, a Belgian woman, was a professor of religion at the Institute of the Marist Brothers in Malmedy.  She was then 39 years old.  In May she started to have trouble speaking and developed other symptoms.  On the advice of a friend, she underwent various medical tests, and, some weeks later, was diagnosed with Sjogren's syndrome, an autoimmune disease.  Her sickness advanced; the government asked her to retire early, and she had to leave her profession in 1998.  Although Marie-Paul received chemotherapy and other treatment, her health grew worse.  In 2000 and 2001, she became more and more disabled and was in unbearable pain.

Prayer for healing

Since her adolescence, Marie-Paul had loved Elizabeth of the Trinity and had prayed for her intercession.  Now all her friends, together with the nuns of the Carmel of Dijon (now in Flavignerot, where the nuns had moved in 1979), continued to pray the novena to Blessed Elizabeth to ask for Marie-Paul's healing. The patient herself did not ask to be cured, but she wanted to go on pilgrimage to the Carmel of Flavignerot before she died to thank Elizabeth, who had accompanied her so powerfully during her illness.

The patient makes a pilgrimage of thanksgiving to pray at Elizabeth's Carmel before she dies

Accompanied by friends, Marie-Paul came as a pilgrim to the Carmel of Flavignerot.  On April 2, 2002, in the chapel of the Carmel, she prayed and gave thanks to Elizabeth for sustaining her during her five-year illness.  Coming out of the chapel exhausted, she sat down to rest on one of the rocks that edged the monastery's parking lot. All at once she stood up, raised her hands to heaven, and cried out in amazement and happiness "I'm not in pain any more!"  From that day she has been well.

Restored to health, Marie-Paul makes a second pilgrimage of thanksgiving on foot

Just a few months later, Marie-Paul was able to walk 350 kilometers (217 miles) on a pilgrimage to give thanks.  It took some time, and many medical examinations, till the happy day when, on March 3, 2016, Pope Francis authorized Cardinal Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, to promulgate the decree approving the cure of Marie-Paul Stevens as a miracle attributable to the intercession of Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity.  It was this which opened the way for Elizabeth's canonization, and Pope Francis announced today that she will be canonized on Sunday, October 16, 2016. 

Blessings

Marie-Paul, we thank you for your faith and endurance, and we rejoice in your cure and in God's having chosen you as an instrument to make soon-to-be-Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity known and loved.  May she accompany you more and more closely.