The Sanctuary of Notre-Dame de Lourdes welcomes the official post-mortem proclamation of the 71st miracle at Lourdes, by Mgr Malcolm McMahon, archbishop of Liverpool. It refers to the healing of John Jack Traynor, seriously wounded during the First World War, which took place in Lourdes in 1923 on the occasion of the first pilgrimage of the Liverpool diocese.
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 October 8, 1914 near Antwerp (Belgium), he was hit by machine-gun fire on May 8, 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 July 24, 1923” (procès verbal de guérison du Bureau des Constatations Médicales, signed by the president, Docteur Auguste Vallet, October 2, 1926).
In July 1923, he travelled to Lourdes on the occasion of the Liverpool archdiocese’s first pilgrimage to the Shrine. He was cured on July 25, after being immersed in the Shrine’s pools 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 July 7, 1926 to declare his recovery.
John Traynor returned to Lourdes every year as a stretcher-bearer, until 1939. He is 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 December 8, 1943 of a completely different ailment.
His cure was not officially recognized by the Church until 2024.
The miracle was proclaimed a century after his cure.
Chronology of the procedure for recognizing John Traynor's miracle
1923, July 25: Healing of John Traynor
1926, July 7: Declaration of cure recorded by the Bureau des Constatations Médicales de Lourdes (n°26014)
1926, October 2: Healing recognized as unexplained in the state of scientific knowledge, by the Bureau des Constatations Médicales de Lourdes, then supposed transmission of the file to the Diocese of Liverpool.
1926, December 26: Publication of the medical report in the Journal de la Grotte (the Shrine’s official journal). Then in Les Annales (February-March 1927).
2024: Constitution of a canonical commission by the Diocese of Liverpool.
2024, December 8: Official proclamation of the miracle by the Archbishop of Liverpool.
