Healing of Francis Ranier

Francis Ranier was cured of severe arterial calcification in August 1950 after praying for Maximilian Kolbe's intercession. His physicians declared the resolution of the condition medically inexplicable. The cure was accepted as the second of two miracles for his beatification.

Francis Ranier was an Italian man suffering from severe calcification of the arteries — a condition in which the arterial walls harden and narrow due to calcium deposits, restricting blood flow and placing the patient at high risk of cardiac failure, stroke, and other serious complications. In 1950, treatment options were extremely limited; the condition at the severity Ranier presented was considered irreversible.

Nine years had passed since Maximilian Kolbe's death at Auschwitz, and five years since the end of the war. Kolbe's reputation for heroic sanctity — the Polish Franciscan who had offered his life in place of a stranger — was by then well established across Catholic communities in Europe. His cause for beatification had been opened, and his intercession was being sought by many.

Francis Ranier prayed for Kolbe's intercession. In August 1950, his condition resolved in a manner his physicians declared medically inexplicable. The arterial calcification cleared. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints reviewed the case as part of the beatification process. Medical examiners confirmed the healing could not be accounted for by natural means. It was accepted as the second of the two miracles required for Kolbe's beatification.

Maximilian Kolbe was beatified by Pope Paul VI on October 17, 1971. His canonization followed on October 10, 1982, under Pope John Paul II. Because Kolbe was declared a martyr at canonization, no separate canonization miracle was required — the two beatification miracles of Angela Testoni and Francis Ranier remain the only formally recognized miraculous healings in his cause.