Miracle: blind woman returns to see
The healing of a blind woman also spreads the fame of Saint Charbel in the United States
A miracle occurred in Phoenix, Arizona, attributed to the intercession of the hermit of Annaya, in Lebanon. Dafné Gutierrez the day after visiting a relic of the saint wakes up with a strong itch in the eyes and the sensation of a strong pressure on the head and on the orbits and in the diffused light of a bedside lamp, she cries in amazement to her husband: "I can see you, I can see you".
Beirut (AsiaNews) - The healing of a blind woman in Phoenix, Arizona, attributed to the intercession of Saint Charbel Makhlouf, is making the miracle cry. The fame of thaumaturgist of the hermit of Annaya, in Lebanon (8 May 1828 - 24 December 1898) is spreading all over the world and, in any case, where the fate has led the Maronites, scattered everywhere by their tormented history.
The city of Phoenix witnesses one of these amazing wonders of which Saint Charbel has the secret: the healing of a Hispanic-American woman, Dafné Gutierrez (30 years old), mother of three children, made completely blind by the malformation of Arnold Chiari.
Phoenix is a city where there is a strong colony of Lebanese origin, essentially Maronite. The local Maronite church is dedicated to Saint Joseph and the masses are celebrated in three languages: Arabic, Spanish and English. St. Joseph's Church is one of the 36 Maronite parishes in the United States, divided into the two large dioceses of New York and Los Angeles.
The relic of Saint Charbel, which has been making the rounds of these parishes since 2015, consists of a bone fragment preserved in a cedar wood case. The parish priest of the church of St. Joseph, Wissam Akiki, had given the greatest possible dissemination to the news of the relatively short visit (15-17 January 2016) that the relic would have made in his parish, on the occasion of a priestly retreat with the bishop Maronite from Los Angeles, Msgr. Élias Abdallah Zeidane.
Dafné Gutierrez (pictured, who had been diagnosed with Arnold Chiari at age 13, had developed papillary edema at the end of the optic nerve over the years. Surgery to correct the malformation had proved futile. autumn 2014 had lost the use of her left eye, which had gradually weakened since the previous year. In November 2015, her right eye had turned off, sinking into a total night that did not allow her to see even a sunbeam fixed directly. A medical report claimed that her blindness was irreversible and required permanent health care. The woman was also thinking of retiring to an institution for the blind, not to be burdensome to her family.
On the weekend of October 16-17, attracted by Father Wissam's posters, neighbors encouraged him to ask for healing. Accompanied by one of them, she shows up on January 16th. "I placed my hand on her head and then on her eyes and asked God to heal her, with the intercession of Saint Charbel," says the priest soberly. On Sunday, Dafné and his family attend mass and then return home. It is on the morning of the 18th that unexplained healing arrives. At around 5 in the morning, the miraculous woman wakes up with severe itching in the eyes and the sensation of strong pressure on the head and orbits. Wake up your husband who feels like a strong burning smell in the room. He turns on the light, but immediately turns it off at the request of his bride, very disturbed. But in the diffused light of a bedside lamp, the woman announces, amazed, that she can see him. "I can see you, I can see you with both eyes," he shouts. At the same time, Dafné feels strong pressure on her head and eyes, as if recovering from an operation. Bring your hand to your head, on the right side, as if there was a wound. One can imagine the sequel. "I couldn't believe it, I didn't want to close my eyes anymore," says the miraculous. "My kids screamed mom can see, God healed mom!".
Three days later, an ophthalmic exam cost healing. To date, five doctors have examined Dafné, including an Lebanese-born ophthalmologist, Dr. Jimmy Saadé. Healing defies any scientific explanation. According to his doctor, no example of such healing had been recorded in 40 years of exercise. "No way! No way! " he did not stop repeating, reading the report in front of him. The eyeball, the report specifies, does not show any trace of edema. By professional scruple, a complete health dossier is being developed to better analyze the case and solidly document the inexplicable nature of a very recent recovery. The problem, in doing so, is to verify if the prodigy also includes the malformation of the cause of blindness, as suggested by the sensation of pressure on the head felt by Dafé, "as if she were recovering from an intervention".
But popular belief doesn't care about these scruples. News of a blind woman's recovery spread everywhere in Phoenix and opened the news of the American and Mexican regional television chains. Consequently, thousands of visitors began to flock to the church of St. Joseph, the parish priest of whom he wisely decided to set a special day of intercession on the 22nd of each month, as is done in Annaya after the amazing healing of Nouhad Chami, which took place January 22, 1993.
For his part, after traveling the United States, the relic of St Charbel was brought to the Maronite diocese of Our Lady of Lebanon, in Los Angeles, after the last two stages in Detroit, where the Chaldean community also wanted to honor him, and in Miami.