Healing of Elise Lesage

Elise Lesage suffered from tuberculous osteo-arthritis of the knee—destruction of bone and joint tissue. Her doctor held that her illness warranted radical treatment or surgery. She traveled to Lourdes with the National Pilgrimage and was immersed in the Baths. The Medical Bureau examined her the same day; both her doctor and the Bureau certified that she bore only the scarred mark of her former illness, now cured. The Bishop of Arras declared the cure miraculous in February 1908.

The Lourdes Medical Bureau gathered documentation; the International Medical Committee (C.M.I.L.) affirmed the cure was inexplicable in the current state of medical knowledge. The Bishop of Arras recognized it on 4 February 1908. Tuberculosis was the leading cause of death before antibiotics. Rapid, complete cure without drugs is medically unexplained.