Danila Castelli, a wife and mother, led an ordinary life until the age of 34 when she began to suffer from severe spontaneous hypertensive crises. In 1982, X-rays and ultrasound scans revealed a parauterine mass and a fibroid in her uterus. Danila underwent a hysterectomy and adnexectomy and a partial removal of the pancreas. A scan the following year confirmed the presence of a “pheochromocytoma” (a catecholamine-producing tumour) in the rectum, bladder and vagina. Several operations were then carried out in the hope of eliminating the points causing the blood pressure attacks until 1988, without any success. In May 1989, while on a pilgrimage to Lourdes, Danila came out of the Baths, where she had been immersed, and felt “an extraordinary wellness”. She soon declared her sudden recovery to the Medical Bureau in Lourdes. Danila Castelli has since returned to a completely normal life. After five meetings (1989, 1992, 1994, 1997 and 2010), the Medical Bureau declared her cured by a formal and unanimous vote: “Mrs Castelli has been completely and permanently cured of the syndrome she suffered from since her pilgrimage to Lourdes in 1989, 21 years ago, and this without any relation to the interventions or treatments.” The CMIL (International Medical Committee of Lourdes) in its session of 19 November 2011 in Paris certified “that the mode of her cure remains unexplained in the current state of scientific knowledge”.
Bishop Giovanni Giudici, bishop of the diocese where Danila Castelli lives, declared the “prodigious-miraculous” character and the value of “sign” of this healing.
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