Healing of Carmen Perez Pons

Carmen Perez Pons was born in Valencia around October 15, 2008 — approximately four days before the beatification of Louis and Zélie Martin. Born at approximately 26 weeks gestation, she presented with a grade 4 intraventricular hemorrhage, the most severe classification, with outcomes typically fatal or resulting in permanent neurological disability. Barefoot Carmelite nuns at Serra recommended prayers to the newly beatified couple. Over the following weeks, Carmen's condition improved gradually and completely; she was discharged on January 2, 2009. Eight medical experts testified her recovery had no scientific explanation. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints accepted the miracle on March 18, 2015.

Carmen Perez Pons was born in Valencia, Spain, around October 15, 2008 — approximately four days before the beatification of Louis and Zélie Martin on October 19. She was born extremely prematurely, at approximately twenty-six weeks of gestation, and immediately presented with life-threatening complications. The most severe was a grade 4 intraventricular hemorrhage — bleeding deep within the brain's ventricles, the highest classification of severity. At that grade, outcomes are typically fatal or result in profound and permanent neurological disability. Her physicians did not expect her to survive, and those who did survive such injuries rarely did so without lasting impairment.

Her family, in desperation, reached out to a community of Barefoot Carmelite nuns at Serra, near Valencia. The sisters recommended prayers to the newly beatified Louis and Zélie Martin, whose feast had been celebrated just days before Carmen's birth. The family and the sisters began a novena, asking for their intercession.

Over the weeks that followed, Carmen's condition improved — not in the sudden, overnight reversal that characterizes some miracle cases, but gradually and completely. The hemorrhage resolved. The neurological damage that had been expected did not materialize. She was discharged from hospital on January 2, 2009 — the birthday of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, the Martins' youngest daughter.

Eight medical experts, as part of the diocesan inquiry opened in 2013, testified that Carmen's recovery had no scientific explanation consistent with the severity of her initial presentation. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints accepted the miracle on March 18, 2015. Louis and Zélie Martin were canonized by Pope Francis on October 18, 2015.

Carmen Perez Pons was present at the canonization ceremony in Rome.