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On December 8, 2024, the shrine of Lourdes welcomed the official proclamation by Archbishop Malcolm McMahon of Liverpool, England, of the 71st miracle attributed to the intercession of Our Lady of Lourdes.
The miracle happened at the shrine in 1923: the healing of John Jack Traynor, a soldier severely wounded in the First World War. It took place during the first Lourdes pilgrimage of the Liverpool Diocese.
An Englishman with an Irish Catholic mother
The Lourdes shrine’s website reports that Traynor was born in Liverpool in 1883 to an Irish mother, who died while he was young. According to a report by Fr. Patrick O’Connor for the Catholic Truth Society (CTS) (reproduced by Faithandfamily.org.uk), he would later say that “her devotion to Mass and Holy Communion and her trust in the Blessed Mother stayed with him as a memory and a fruitful example.”
Traynor joined the Royal Navy at the outbreak of World War I. First, he was wounded on October 8, 1914, near Antwerp (Belgium). He was hit by shrapnel in the head and was unconscious for five weeks. After recovering, he continued fighting until he was hit by machine-gun fire on May 8, 1915, during the Battle of Gallipoli (now Turkey).
According to the CTS report, “he was wounded in the head and chest, while a bullet tore through the inner side of his upper right arm and lodged under the collarbone.” This left his arm paralyzed.
Beyond the help of medicine
He underwent numerous unsuccessful operations, failing to regain the use of his right arm and suffering from severe and frequent epileptic seizures. A Liverpool surgeon tried to cure his epilepsy in 1920 through brain surgery, but Traynor emerged from the operation worse off. That operation resulted in the partial paralysis of both legs. A plate had to be inserted in his skull to cover the inch-wide hole and shield his brain.
In early summer 1923, his doctors judged that he was beyond cure. The CTS article describes his condition:
The result of all their efforts and examinations was to prove that he was completely and incurably incapacitated. Unable to stand or walk, subject to frequent epileptic fits, with three open wounds, one of them in his head, without the power of feeling or movement in his torn and shrivelled right arm, he was indeed a human wreck.
The army granted him a full pension for 100% disability. They scheduled him to enter the Mossley Hill Hospital for Incurables on July 24, 1923, as stated in the Bureau des Constatations Médicales report on his recovery. The document was signed by the Bureau’s president, Dr. Auguste Vallet, on October 2, 1926.
A pilgrimage to Lourdes in 1923
In July 1923, Traynor joined the Archdiocese of Liverpool’s first pilgrimage to Lourdes. His family and friends, a priest, and even his doctors tried to dissuade him. They feared he might not survive the trip. His wife, seeing his determination, finally gave in, and even sold some of her jewelry to pay for the trip, according to Fr. O’Connor’s article for CTS.
After various obstacles along the way due to his worsening condition, he reached Lourdes. He told Fr. O’Connor that, upon arrival, he “was in a terrible condition, as my wounds and sores had not been freshly bandaged since I left Liverpool.”
The moment of the miracle
The pilgrims stayed for six days in Liverpool. He went several times to be immersed in the shrine's healing pools, fed by water from the spring Our Lady revealed to Bernadette. Then, on the fourth day, he bathed in the waters again, and took part in the traditional Eucharistic procession and blessing of the sick. That’s when the miracle happened.
He told Fr. O’Connor:
The procession came winding its way back, as usual, to the church, and at the end walked the Archbishop of Rheims, carrying the Blessed Sacrament. He blessed the two ahead of me, came to me, made the Sign of the Cross with the monstrance and moved on to the next. He had just passed by when I realized that a great change had taken place in me. My right arm, which had been dead since 1915, was violently agitated. I burst its bandages and blessed myself — for the first time in years.
He started to feel that he could walk, but it was still difficult and painful, and those around him thought he was delusional. They drugged him and put him to bed.
Publicly recognized healing
But the next morning he “jumped out of bed,” knelt to finish praying his Rosary, and ran out of his room all the way to the Grotto. The caregivers ran after him, but when they saw him kneeling before the statue of Our Lady, they stood back. He then went to another statue of Mary at the other end of Rosary Square to give thanks again.
He went back to the lodgings for the sick, as crowds who had heard of his healing gathered. After washing up and shaving, he served Mass in the chapel.
He left the next day, after having to deal with curious and enthusiastic crowds every moment. That same day, before departing, he was examined by three doctors who gave testimony, reproduced by Fr. O’Connor in his article:
1. He can walk perfectly;
2. He has recovered the use and function of his right arm;
3. He has recovered sensation in his legs;
4. The opening in his skull has diminished considerably.;
5. There have been no more epileptic crises.
A miracle that bore fruit
The miracle was clear and impressive. Traynor was met by crowds upon arriving in Liverpool, who had gotten word of the miracle and wanted to see the healed man for themselves. Several non-Catholics who accompanied the case close up converted to Catholicism. He went on to support his family again, working without any problem in a job that required physical effort. Despite offers of support, he never took advantage of the publicity his cure earned him for material gain. He had three more children, one of whom he named Bernadette.
On July 7, 1926, he went to the Bureau des Constatations Médicales to make an official report on the remarkable blessing Mary had obtained for him. From then until 1939, John Traynor returned to Lourdes yearly as a stretcher-bearer.
In his statement on the case, the current Archbishop of Liverpool quotes his predecessor Archbishop Derek Worlock as saying,
“There’s no question that people in Liverpool believe Jack Traynor was cured miraculously, and personally I’d have no hesitation in declaring the cure a miracle if the conditions are fulfilled properly.”
A long delay
Despite the widespread conviction that his cure was indeed miraculous, the case languished for decades. It was brought up again in 1993 but failed to progress. Then in 2023 during Liverpool’s archdiocesan centenary pilgrimage, the Catholic Herald reports, the case was revived, and “sufficient medical evidence enabled the archdiocese to reconsider the possibility that the cure of John Traynor might be declared miraculous.”
This proved to be true, as the current archbishop’s proclamation shows.
In the United Kingdom, he is cited as the first British Catholic whose cure at Lourdes has been officially recognized. John Traynor was called to God on December 8, 1943, the feast of the Immaculate Conception.
