Baltimore Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien has opened an inquiry into the
alleged healing of Mary Ellen Heibel, who believes her cancer was cured
thanks to the intervention of 19th century Redemptorist pastor of her
parish, Blessed Francis X. Seelos.
Mary Ellen Heibel's doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington told her May 11, 2004 that she had six months to live, after they discovered that the cancer that had attacked Heibel's esophagus in 2003 and then a lymph node later that year had spread throughout her body, Catholic Online reports.
Given about six months, the longtime parishioner of St Mary in Annapolis underwent a new form of chemotherapy at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore as a palliative treatment to extend her life. But doctors warned it would only postpone the inevitable.
At the suggestion of a Pittsburgh priest, Heibel began praying a novena in 2005 to Blessed Francis X. Seelos - a 19th-century Redemptorist pastor of her parish who died of yellow fever in 1867 in New Orleans.
One week after she began the novena at her parish, Heibel's cancer disappeared. Gone were tumors in both lungs, her liver, back and sternum. When Dr. Michael Gibson, her doctor at Hopkins, called with the news, Heibel couldn't believe it.
"I was just so excited. I called everyone," the 71-year-old mother of four remembered. "I never thought in a million years this would happen."
Told by her doctors that the unexplained healing could not be the result of her chemotherapy, Heibel is convinced that Blessed Seelos interceded on her behalf.
"I know this had to be a miracle," she said.
Archdiocesan officials are now investigating whether Heibel might just be right.
"I think people were shocked when I was dying practically and came back to life so fast," said Heibel, who retired last year.
FULL STORY @
Archdiocese investigates possible Seelos miracle (Catholic Online)
LINKS
Blessed Francis X. Seelos