Healing of Marcilio Haddad Andrino

In a coma, on life support, family told to prepare for his death. His wife prayed with a relic. Doctors found him conscious the next morning with all symptoms gone.

Marcilio Haddad Andrino was a Brazilian man from Santos, in the state of São Paulo. In December 2008 he was admitted to hospital in a critical condition. He had developed multiple brain abscesses and viral meningoencephalitis — a severe infection of the brain and its surrounding membranes — complicated by hydrocephalus, an abnormal accumulation of fluid in the brain. He was placed on life support, slipped into a coma, and his physicians told his family to prepare for his death.

His wife, Fernanda, did not accept that prognosis. She obtained a relic of Mother Teresa and, on the night of December 9, 2008, gathered with family members to pray beside his bed, placing the relic against him and asking for Mother Teresa's intercession.

The following morning, December 10, Marcilio regained consciousness. His doctors, who had considered his death imminent, found him alert and responsive. Over the days that followed his condition improved rapidly and without medical explanation. He was eventually discharged from hospital with no lasting neurological damage — an outcome his physicians could not account for given the severity of his initial presentation.

The case was submitted to the Vatican's Consulta Medica. After extensive review of the medical record, the board concluded in 2015 that the healing was instantaneous, complete, and medically inexplicable. Pope Francis recognized the miracle, making it the basis for Mother Teresa's canonization on September 4, 2016.

Marcilio and Fernanda Andrino attended the canonization ceremony in Rome, where they met Pope Francis.