Danila Castelli — Lourdes Cure (1989, recognized 2013)

1989 cure Recognized in 2013 Lourdes #69

Danila Castelli's recovery sits near the present day but still inside the classic Lourdes structure of baths, review, and long validation. Official sanctuary image

Location

Lourdes, France

Reported cure during a May 1989 pilgrimage.

Diagnosis

Pheochromocytoma syndrome with repeated surgeries

Summarized by the Lourdes medical association.

Recognition

69th miracle of Lourdes

Recognized by the Bishop of Pavia on June 20, 2013.

Review path

Bureau of Medical Observations + CMIL

Public summaries list multiple review meetings before recognition.

Source note Danila Castelli’s case stands out because the public file preserves both the Bureau and CMIL wording

AMIL’s public summary says the Bureau judged her completely and durably cured without relation to prior treatments, and the international committee later said the cure remained unexplained according to current scientific knowledge.

AMIL Lourdes case summary Open source

The story

Danila Castelli underwent a Lourdes pilgrimage in 1989 after years of severe illness involving major recurrent crises and repeated operations.^[2] Her cure was later officially recognized in 2013 as the 69th miracle of Lourdes.^[1]

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Primary-source file

Official sanctuary Lourdes miracle list

The sanctuary list identifies Danila Castelli as the 69th recognized miracle of Lourdes.

lourdes-france.org Lourdes medical source AMIL case summary on Danila Castelli

This public Lourdes medical page preserves the diagnosis summary, the Bureau votes, and the 2013 decree details.

amilourdes.com Recognition authority Bishop of Pavia recognition noted by AMIL

The public AMIL summary states that Bishop Giovanni Giudici declared the cure prodigious-miraculous on June 20, 2013.

amilourdes.com

What doctors were actually looking at

The AMIL medical summary supplies far more detail about Castelli’s long pre-Lourdes history.^[2]

• she was born in 1946 and began to suffer severe spontaneous hypertensive crises around age 34^[2]
• in 1982, imaging identified a right para-uterine mass and a fibromatous uterus, leading to hysterectomy and annexectomy^[2]
• later that year she underwent a partial pancreatectomy^[2]
• further testing identified pheochromocytoma, with tumor involvement in the rectal, bladder, and vaginal region^[2]
• additional operations followed through 1988, without ending the attacks^[2]

So the medical question in this file was not merely whether she felt better. The public AMIL summary describes repeated imaging, several major operations, persistent crises, and a tumor syndrome that kept returning despite treatment.^[2]

The same source says that during a pilgrimage in May 1989, Castelli emerged from the Lourdes baths with an “extraordinary feeling of wellbeing” and soon presented her case to the Bureau of Medical Observations.^[2]

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Publicly documented chronology

Review timeline

The AMIL summary gives an unusually concrete public review sequence:

Public review stages listed by AMIL

The Bureau of Medical Observations considered the case at five meetings in 1989, 1992, 1994, 1997, and 2010, then the International Medical Committee of Lourdes issued its conclusion in 2011, and the bishop recognized the cure in 2013.^[2]

• the Bureau certified the cure as complete and lasting after those meetings^[2]
• the CMIL said in 2011 that the cure remained unexplained according to current scientific knowledge^[2]
• Bishop Giovanni Giudici of Pavia recognized the cure on June 20, 2013^{[1] [2]}

That public chronology is one of the stronger features of the case because it shows how long the Lourdes process can remain active before recognition is granted.

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What the Lourdes medical bodies said

The AMIL page is especially useful here because it preserves both stages of the medical judgment instead of only the bishop’s later recognition.^[2]

First came the Bureau’s long review, spread across five meetings from 1989 to 2010. AMIL says that after those meetings the Bureau issued a formal unanimous vote stating that Castelli had been completely and durably cured and that the cure had no relation to the operations or treatments she had received.^[2]

Primary source excerpt The Bureau's public wording on the Castelli file

completely and durably cured ... without any relation to the interventions and treatments undergone

The public AMIL page presents this as the formal unanimous vote after the Bureau's five meetings on the case.

AMIL summary of the Bureau vote Open source

Then came the international committee stage. In 2011, the CMIL stated that the way her cure occurred remained outside the reach of current medical knowledge.^[2]

Primary source excerpt How the international committee phrased it

remains unexplained according to current scientific knowledge

This is the wording AMIL gives for the CMIL decision issued after the long Bureau review.

AMIL summary of the 2011 CMIL conclusion Open source

The public file still does not upload every operative report or scan image. But it does show more than many readers realize: it identifies the imaging and surgeries before Lourdes, gives the dates of the Bureau meetings, and preserves the actual wording of both the Bureau and the CMIL.^[2]

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References

1. Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes. “Miraculous healings.” Official sanctuary list identifying Danila Castelli as the 69th recognized miracle of Lourdes, recognized on June 20, 2013. Available at: https://www.lourdes-france.org/en/miraculous-healings/
2. A.M.I.L. (Association Médicale Internationale de Lourdes). “69. Danila Castelli.” Public Lourdes medical summary describing the diagnosis, imaging, surgeries, Bureau meetings, unanimous medical vote, and CMIL conclusion that the cure remained unexplained according to current scientific knowledge. Available at: https://www.amilourdes.com/en/post/69-danila-castelli-1