Healing of Sister Caterina Capitani

Abdominal wound and fistula closed instantly; fever resolved; full and permanent restoration of normal eating function despite absence of most digestive organs

Sister Caterina Capitani entered religious life as a Daughter of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. In 1962–1963, she developed rare ulcerous tumors covering the interior of her stomach, linked to pancreatic and splenic dysfunction. Over the following years she underwent at least fourteen surgical procedures across multiple hospitals in Naples — including the Ospedali Riuniti, Ascalesi Hospital, and Pellegrini Hospital. Surgeons removed most of her stomach, leaving only a small remnant, as well as her entire pancreas and spleen, connecting her esophagus directly to the small intestine. Subsequent complications included intestinal blockage, pleurisy, and a perforated abdominal fistula with peritonitis. By May 1966 she had been hospitalized again in Naples and her physicians considered her condition terminal.

Her community of Daughters of Charity had prayed persistently for her through the intercession of Pope John XXIII, who had died three years earlier. On May 22, 1966, an assistant provincial of the congregation traveled from Rome and placed a relic — a piece of the bed sheet on which Pope John had died — directly on the open abdominal wound.

On May 25, 1966, at approximately 2:30 in the afternoon, Sister Capitani experienced an apparition of Pope John XXIII standing beside her bed. He placed his hand on her wound and spoke: "You are healed. Ring the bell, call the sisters — have them take your temperature and you will see that you will not have even the slightest temperature. Eat whatever you want, as you did before the sickness." Immediately, her fever vanished — her temperature measured at 36.8°C — and the abdominal fistula and wound closed, the skin smooth and intact. She asked for food and ate normally, to the astonishment of the nursing staff.

Sister Capitani recovered completely and permanently. She lived until 2010, working for decades at San Giovanni di Dio Hospital in Agrigento caring for the sick, eating normal food despite lacking most of her digestive organs and requiring no medication related to her original condition.

The Congregation for the Causes of Saints convened a Medical Council to examine the case. In April 1999 — more than thirty years after the event — the council voted unanimously that the healing was inexplicably scientific: no medical explanation could account for the recovery. The Congregation then completed the canonical process, and John XXIII was beatified by Pope John Paul II on September 3, 2000. No second miracle was sought for canonization; Pope Francis dispensed that requirement in 2013, citing the evident holiness of John XXIII's life and the fiftieth anniversary of Vatican II.