The following story is...

A Miracle at Lourdes

In 1902, Alexis Carrel, a sceptical young doctor, was invited to travel on a train to Lourdes with sick patients on pilgrimage so that he might observe the supposed miracles that occurred in that famous place. On the train was a young woman, one Marie Bailly, who was very, very ill, deathly ill, and she obviously had tuberculosis peritonitis. She had multiple abdominal tumours and a large distended abdomen. Her legs were oedematous, and she was in a great deal of discomfort.

On the train Carrel medicated her and she became unconscious and was truly near death. When she was later taken from the train down to be immersed in the baths at Lourdes, Carrel examined her again. She was still unconscious. He said; "She is far too ill to immerse in the bath," so they simply took some water from the pools and sprinkled it on her abdomen. Nothing happened immediately. But within the hour, as Carrel and another physician friend observed her, they saw her abdomen shrink. The tumours went away, and the woman began to arouse. And Mademoiselle Bailly, who just hours before was very near death, immediately awoke. After her recovery at Lourdes she dedicated her life to the church and she not only survived, but came within two years of outliving Carrel himself.

So, observing this miracle had a lot of profound effects on Alexis Carrel, as we will see. First of all, when he went back and reported what he saw to the medical community. They called him gullible, stupid, ignorant, and told him, "Please do not even bother trying to take your surgical exams, because you will not pass them." This was the main reason that led Carrel to leave France and ultimately end up in the United States.

This experience also caused his dedication to research, and his denunciation of clinical medicine, which also was important in the life of Carrel. Later on, in about 1912 or 1914, he met his wife, who had been working as a nurse at Lourdes. So, this miracle, and his subsequent journeys to Lourdes to observe the miracles were very important in the life of Carrel.

Life in the New World

After renouncing clinical medicine, he dedicated himself to research, and moved to the new country. The new country then for the people of France was Canada, and he moved to Montreal in 1904. There he gave a paper on vascular anastomosis at the Second Medical Congress of the French Language of North America. The paper caused an incredible sensation in the medical community. One of the participants in the meeting was Dr. Karl Beck (who with his brother happened to be attending the meeting) and, they were very impressed with Carrel. They offered Carrel a job in Chicago. But, Carrel turned that job down and took another; in Chicago as a matter of fact, a position at the Hull Laboratory of Physiology at the University of Chicago. He worked in this laboratory with Dr. Charles C. Guthrie. His research paved the way for other important advances in medical science.