Healing of Floribeth Mora Diaz

While watching JPII's beatification on TV, she heard his voice say "Don't be afraid. I am with you." She felt immediate improvement.

Floribeth Mora Díaz was a Costa Rican woman and mother of four. In April 2011, at the age of forty-nine, she was diagnosed with a cerebral aneurysm — an abnormal bulge in an artery wall in the brain. Her doctors at the Hospital de la Mujer in San José delivered a stark assessment: the aneurysm was inoperable, treatment was not feasible, and she had approximately one month to live. She was sent home.

On May 1, 2011, she lay in bed watching the televised broadcast of John Paul II's beatification ceremony in Rome. She had a magazine beside her — a special edition featuring John Paul II's image on the cover. Her family had been praying for his intercession, though she had little hope left. At the moment when Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed the beatification, she heard a voice. She later described it as clear and calm: "Get up. Don't be afraid. I am with you."

She rose from bed. The debilitating headaches that had accompanied her condition were gone. She felt, by her own account, completely well. Her family, expecting her death within weeks, found her standing.

Her subsequent medical examinations showed no trace of the aneurysm. The imaging that had documented the lesion showed nothing. Her neurologists, who had given her weeks to live, could not explain the resolution of a condition that does not resolve on its own.

The case was referred to the Vatican's Consulta Medica, which reviewed the full medical record and concluded in 2013 that the healing was instantaneous, complete, and beyond medical explanation. Pope Francis recognized the miracle, and Floribeth Mora Díaz was present at St. Peter's Square on April 27, 2014, when John Paul II was canonized — the miracle that made his canonization possible having happened to her.

She has since traveled internationally to speak about her experience and has met multiple times with Pope Francis.