The soldier miraculously cured of war wounds in 1923
Born in Liverpool in 1883 to an Irish mother, he joined the Royal Navy at the outbreak of the First World War. First wounded on 8 October 1914 by shrapnel, near Antwerp (Belgium), he was then hit by machine-gun fire on 8 May 1915 during the Battle of Gallipoli (now Turkey). Numerous medical operations failed. He lost the use of his right arm, but refused amputation, and suffered severe epileptic seizures. In 1920, a Liverpool surgeon attempted to cure the epilepsy by trepanning, resulting in partial paralysis of both legs. His condition was such that in early summer 1923, “he was designated for the hospice des incurables, where he was to enter on 24 July 1923” (procès verbal de guérison du Bureau des Constatations Médicales, signed by the president, Docteur Auguste Vallet, 2 October 1926).
In July 1923, he travelled to Lourdes on the occasion of the Liverpool archdiocese’s first pilgrimage to the Sanctuary. He was cured on 25 July, after being immersed in the Baths of Lourdes and then taking part in the Eucharistic procession and blessing of the sick. On the same day, the doctors accompanying the pilgrimage confirmed his condition. He left Lourdes the following day.
He went to the Bureau des Constatations Médicales on 11 July 1926 to declare his cure.
John Traynor returned to Lourdes every year as a stretcher-bearer, until 1939. He was a member of the Liverpool Brancardier Association. It is said in the UK that he was the first British Catholic to be cured at Lourdes. He died on 8 December 1943 of a completely different ailment.
His cure was not officially recognised miraculous by the Church until 2024, a century after his cure.
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