Miracles

The miraculous cure attributed to Pope John Paul II that led to his being declared "blessed" by the Catholic Church occurred in 2007, two years after his death, when a French nun developed symptoms of Parkinson's disease.

Sister Marie Simon-Pierre's religious order began praying to John Paul, but her condition deteriorated. When she asked to be relieved of her duties as a midwife, her superior instructed her to write out John Paul's name.

That evening, her symptoms disappeared. Four days later her neurologist said she no longer had Parkinson's.

The second miraculous cure attributed to John Paul's intervention - the one that made him eligible for sainthood - took place in 2011, after Floribella Mora of Costa Rica was diagnosed with an inoperable brain aneurysm. She was told it was fatal.

Resting at home after the diagnosis, Mora's gaze fell on a magazine photo of John Paul. As she later told it, she heard the late pope's voice tell her, "Be not afraid." Soon afterward, her doctors said the aneurysm had inexplicably disappeared.

Mora said she also heard the voice on May 1, 2011, the day Pope Benedict XVI formally declared John Paul blessed.