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Daniel_Marsh
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These medical practitioners, having observed advanced gangrene in his leg, concluded that amputation was the only way to save the patient’s life. When they provided testimony before the judges, these doctors would describe the leg as «very phlegmonous and gangrenous,» to the point of appearing «black.» Around mid-October, Estanga and Millaruelo performed the operation, cutting the right leg «four fingers below the knee.» Although they had made the patient drowsy with alcoholic and drugged drinks, as was the practice at the time, Miguel suffered excruciating pain: «In his torment,» the witnesses would later say, «the young man called upon the Virgin of the Pillar, unceasingly and with great fervor.» A surgery student by the name of Juan Lorenzo García, was given responsibility for recovering the amputated leg and burying it in a dignified fashion in a part of the hospital cemetery reserved for this practice. At this time of faith, respect for the body destined for resurrection dictated that even anatomical remains be treated with piety. García would later testify that he had buried the piece of leg horizontally, «in a hole as deep as a span,» that is twenty-one centimeters (approximately 8 inches), according to the Aragonian measure.
…
At the beginning of 1640, Miguel returned to the place of his birth. He arrived in Calanda in March, mounted on a small donkey. His journey of about 120 kilometers had exhausted him, but his parents’ affectionate welcome restored his strength. Miguel was about to turn 23. Unable to help his family by his work, he went back to begging for alms. Many people testified that they had seen the young amputee in the villages surrounding Calanda, mounted on a little donkey, his cut off leg conspicuous, to call upon the inhabitants’ charity. On March 29, 1640, the region celebrated the 1600th anniversary of the Virgin Mary’s «coming in the mortal flesh» to the banks of the Ebro, according to the belief of the people of the area. This is the origin of the Spaniards’ ancient veneration of the Virgin of the Pillar. Around the same time, a book called The Augustinus by Bishop Cornelius Jansen was published in Louvain, Flanders, at that time part of the Spanish empire. The author’s notorious and eponymous doctrine, Jansenism, rejects Marian devotion, popular piety, pilgrimages, processions, and popular interest in miracles as unworthy of pure faith…
That Thursday, March 29th, Miguel did his utmost to help his family fill baskets of manure loaded on a little donkey. He filled nine baskets in a row, in spite of the trouble he had standing on his wooden leg. When evening came, he returned home, exhausted, his stump sorer than usual. That night, the Pellicer family was forced, by order of the government, to put up one of the Royal Cavalry’s soldiers who was marching toward the border to push back the French troops. Miguel had to give him his bed, and slept on a mattress on the ground in his parents’ room. He stretched out on it around ten o’clock. Having taken off his wooden leg, he stretched a cloak over himself that was too short to cover his whole body, because he had lent his blanket to the soldier. He then fell asleep…
Two feet and two legs
Between ten-thirty and eleven o’clock, Miguel’s mother entered the room with an oil lamp in her hand. She immediately smelled «a perfume, a sweet smell.» Intrigued, she raised her lamp — two feet were sticking out, «one over the other, crossed» from under the cloak covering her son, who was fast asleep. Stunned, she went to get her husband, who lifted the cloak. No doubt about it, there were indeed two feet, each at the end of a leg! They managed with some difficulty to wake up their son. Gradually becoming aware of what had happened, Miguel was amazed. The first words that came to his lips were to ask his father to «take his hand, and forgive him for the transgressions he had committed against him.» This spontaneous and immediate reaction of humility in this person who was the beneficiary of a miracle, is a very strong sign of the divine origin of this wonder. When asked, in a voice full of emotion, if he had «any idea how this had happened,» the young man replied that he knew nothing about it, but when he had been awakened from his sleep, «he had been in the middle of a dream that he was in the Holy Chapel of Our Lady of the Pillar and that he was rubbing his amputated leg with oil from the lamp, as he had the custom of doing.» He was immediately sure that Our Lady of the Pillar had brought back his cut-off leg and put it into place. The following Monday, his parents each in their turn affirmed before the notary that they «thought and regarded as truth that the Most Holy Virgin of the Pillar had asked her Son, our Redeemer, and had obtained this miracle from God, because of Miguel’s prayers, or because such were His mysterious ways.» These Christians clearly saw that the Virgin does not «do» miracles, but that, through her supplication, she obtains them from the Most Holy Trinity. As loved and venerated as she is, the Virgin is not like a pagan goddess, but rather an intermediary between us and her Son, in keeping with the maternal role her Son Himself bestowed on her when He told Saint John, Behold, your mother! (Jn 19:27).
clairval.com/lettres/en/2006/12/08/2061206.htm
When Heather shows the world her newly restored leg everybody around the world will know what the power of Jesus can really do. Amen.
mwillett.org/restore.htm
…
At the beginning of 1640, Miguel returned to the place of his birth. He arrived in Calanda in March, mounted on a small donkey. His journey of about 120 kilometers had exhausted him, but his parents’ affectionate welcome restored his strength. Miguel was about to turn 23. Unable to help his family by his work, he went back to begging for alms. Many people testified that they had seen the young amputee in the villages surrounding Calanda, mounted on a little donkey, his cut off leg conspicuous, to call upon the inhabitants’ charity. On March 29, 1640, the region celebrated the 1600th anniversary of the Virgin Mary’s «coming in the mortal flesh» to the banks of the Ebro, according to the belief of the people of the area. This is the origin of the Spaniards’ ancient veneration of the Virgin of the Pillar. Around the same time, a book called The Augustinus by Bishop Cornelius Jansen was published in Louvain, Flanders, at that time part of the Spanish empire. The author’s notorious and eponymous doctrine, Jansenism, rejects Marian devotion, popular piety, pilgrimages, processions, and popular interest in miracles as unworthy of pure faith…
That Thursday, March 29th, Miguel did his utmost to help his family fill baskets of manure loaded on a little donkey. He filled nine baskets in a row, in spite of the trouble he had standing on his wooden leg. When evening came, he returned home, exhausted, his stump sorer than usual. That night, the Pellicer family was forced, by order of the government, to put up one of the Royal Cavalry’s soldiers who was marching toward the border to push back the French troops. Miguel had to give him his bed, and slept on a mattress on the ground in his parents’ room. He stretched out on it around ten o’clock. Having taken off his wooden leg, he stretched a cloak over himself that was too short to cover his whole body, because he had lent his blanket to the soldier. He then fell asleep…
Two feet and two legs
Between ten-thirty and eleven o’clock, Miguel’s mother entered the room with an oil lamp in her hand. She immediately smelled «a perfume, a sweet smell.» Intrigued, she raised her lamp — two feet were sticking out, «one over the other, crossed» from under the cloak covering her son, who was fast asleep. Stunned, she went to get her husband, who lifted the cloak. No doubt about it, there were indeed two feet, each at the end of a leg! They managed with some difficulty to wake up their son. Gradually becoming aware of what had happened, Miguel was amazed. The first words that came to his lips were to ask his father to «take his hand, and forgive him for the transgressions he had committed against him.» This spontaneous and immediate reaction of humility in this person who was the beneficiary of a miracle, is a very strong sign of the divine origin of this wonder. When asked, in a voice full of emotion, if he had «any idea how this had happened,» the young man replied that he knew nothing about it, but when he had been awakened from his sleep, «he had been in the middle of a dream that he was in the Holy Chapel of Our Lady of the Pillar and that he was rubbing his amputated leg with oil from the lamp, as he had the custom of doing.» He was immediately sure that Our Lady of the Pillar had brought back his cut-off leg and put it into place. The following Monday, his parents each in their turn affirmed before the notary that they «thought and regarded as truth that the Most Holy Virgin of the Pillar had asked her Son, our Redeemer, and had obtained this miracle from God, because of Miguel’s prayers, or because such were His mysterious ways.» These Christians clearly saw that the Virgin does not «do» miracles, but that, through her supplication, she obtains them from the Most Holy Trinity. As loved and venerated as she is, the Virgin is not like a pagan goddess, but rather an intermediary between us and her Son, in keeping with the maternal role her Son Himself bestowed on her when He told Saint John, Behold, your mother! (Jn 19:27).
clairval.com/lettres/en/2006/12/08/2061206.htm
When Heather shows the world her newly restored leg everybody around the world will know what the power of Jesus can really do. Amen.
mwillett.org/restore.htm