Pompeii, woman cries out to the miracle: "unexplained healing"

Past illnesses have disappeared and her patient has regained mobility in her right arm and leg. After 11 years from the stroke, which had forced her to a claudication and to a hypotonia and muscular atrophy of the upper limb, the 74 year old who shouted at the miracle after receiving Holy Communion at the foot of the Queen of the Rosary of Pompeii, "She's healed."

Ennio Biondi, doctor of the ASL Napoli 3 Sud, who has been treating Mrs. Michelina Comegna for twenty five years, has no doubts. «The miracle, if you don't want to call it a miracle, has happened. Science cannot explain a change in a compromised clinical picture for a complete hemiparesis on the right side. "

These are the first words of the doctor who visited the "miraculous" woman yesterday morning, being disconcerted for the recovery. The opinion of Dr. Biondi, pending a more in-depth neurological examination, was asked by Michelina's children to clear up any doubt about what happened and not to give rise to gossip or speculation of any kind. The enthusiasm of a gift received, as faith foresees, for persistent prayers, is therefore joined by the medical verdict. "There is something incredible in what happened, it is beyond doubt - concluded the doctor - now it will be up to the Church and my other colleagues, if the family members want to follow the process for the recognition of grace. I believe that Our Lady of Pompeii operated ».

The first miracle attributed to the Queen of the Rosary of Pompeii dates back to February 13, 1876: the twelve year old Clorinda Lucarelli, deemed incurable by Professor Antonio Cardarelli and for whose salvation her aunt Anna had adhered to the offerings for the nascent church, recovered perfectly from terrible convulsions epileptic. On that same day the icon of the Virgin was exposed to the direct veneration of the faithful.

For Blessed Bartolo Longo it was not a simple coincidence, but a divine will and he said it openly to the faithful: "Clorinda survived through Madonna's intercession".

Three years later the first prodigy was Bartolo Longo himself to recover from a serious illness, thanks to the recitation of the supplication that he made for the Queen of the Rosary. The miracles recognized to the Virgin of Pompeii, in 138 years, are thousands and all witnessed by the ex voto, (objects offered to the Madonna as a pledge of love for the grace received), exhibited in the basilica and in the museum of the Sanctuary.

Naive paintings representing episodes of graces received: healings, escape from shipwrecks, salvation from accidents. But even small objects, mostly silver, which reproduce "miraculous" parts of the body, testify to a naive but heartfelt popular religiosity.

In the paintings this concept is expressed with the Latin acronym: "VFGA" (Votum fecit, gratiam accepit, Vote done, grace received). Many miracles announced through the dozens of letters that arrive every day in the sanctuary offices. Some with medical testimonies, which ascertain their grace, others who are the result of a suggestion of faith. Some miracles are then reciprocated with cash donations. Three years ago an elderly woman from Rome, certain that she had received a grace from the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary of Pompeii, bequeathed three million euros to the Marian shrine.