For over 164 years, the Catholic Church has acknowledged more than 70 medical miracles linked to The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in southern France. Annually, 4 million pilgrims visit this town, many drawn by stories of miraculous recoveries. In 2022, correspondent Bill Whitaker shed light on the Lourdes Office of Medical Observations, where prominent doctors and researchers engage in prolonged investigations into countless claims of cures. They focus on distinguishing cases that current medical knowledge can explain and those that remain mysteries.

During Whitaker’s visit in 2022, the office was led by Dr. Alessandro de Franciscis, a former pediatrician and Harvard-trained epidemiologist, who served as its president and resident physician until February 2026. Since the 60 Minutes team’s visit in 2022, the Church recognized two additional miracles, making a total of 72.

We are looking for a diagnosis of severe diseases with severe prognoses. We check if patients were cured in a sudden, complete, and lasting way without possible explanations, Dr. de Franciscis stated in 2022.

Distinguishing the 72 recognized miracles from over 7,000 claims lies in rigorous medical documentation and patients’ willingness to allow detailed scrutiny of their lives. These cases have faced years of scrutiny. Skeptics argue that medical science lacked rigor in the late 1800s and question the consistent application of criteria over time. Yet, no one has disproven these findings.

The Role of Medical Experts

Dr. Esther Sternberg, an expert in mind-body connections, is the Research Director at the University of Arizona’s Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine. In 2014, she and her colleagues evaluated the reliability of Lourdes’ medical records and published their findings in the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences. She noted improvements in diagnosing unexplained cures as medical science progressed, with the Lourdes office adopting enhanced evaluation techniques and long-term follow-ups.

Dr. Sternberg assured 60 Minutes that the office conducted their evaluations with utmost reliability, finding their conclusions credible.

Living Testimonies of Lourdes Miracles

Producers Nichole Marks and John Gallen, while reporting in 2022, identified four living individuals whose cases are recognized as miracles. Vittorio Micheli recovered from hip osteosarcoma in 1963. In 1965, Sister Luigina Traverso overcame near-total paralysis. A cancerous tumor disappeared from Delizia Cirolli’s right knee in 1976. In 2008, Sister Bernadette Moriau was cured of Cauda Equina, a nerve and lower spine disorder. In 2022, all four affirmed they remained healthy and free of their initial diseases.

This video, originally shared on December 18, 2022, was produced by Keith Zubrow and edited by Sarah Shafer Prediger. Images of Vittorio Micheli and Sister Traverso are courtesy of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes Archives.