Of Saints and Miracles

Saints are, according to the ultimate information source Wikipedia, those who have been called to holiness.

If you are Roman Catholic, you believe in Saints, and you probably know at one point were educated on the process by which one actually becomes a Saint. For those of you who want the detailed version, it is right here. But the Cliff's notes version is that there is investigation, some other stuff, and miracles -- for someone to be a saint, they have to perform at least one miracle.

A story ran in the St. Louis Post Dispatch yesterday, with the story of a girl who had cancer. Due to the multitude of funerals that I attended for friends over the last few weeks, this story caught my eye. But when I read more into the story, I realized that I knew this girl that the story was written about. She was a student of my aunt, and someone that I had met once, when she was first diagnosed.

Since her initial diagnosis, the girl has had more than one relapse, but continued to defy the odds. In November 2002, she was discovered to have a tumor in her spine, lungs and heart. The prognosis was fatal, and she was given a few weeks to live.

On May 19, 2004, surgeons removed the tumor from her chest cavity...and discovered that it was dead.

This Monday, May 19, 2009, she has been cancer free for five years. When you have been cancer free for five years, you are considered cured. And if her cure is considered a miracle by the Vatican, Chaminade will be canonized...and become a Saint.

My background is obviously in health care, and I do believe in the powers of science and the major advances in medical science that have helped to cure diseases in multitudes of people.

But sometimes I still believe in miracles.