Lourdes Healing of John Traynor

Instant and complete restoration of arm function, cessation of epileptic seizures, and recovery of leg mobility after immersion in the Lourdes baths. Examined by physicians on site; no relapse. Traynor remained in good health until his death in 1943.

John Traynor was born in Liverpool in 1883. During the First World War he served in the Royal Naval Division and was severely wounded by machine-gun fire in 1915 at Gallipoli, sustaining injuries to his head and chest. The wounds left him with epileptic seizures, the loss of use of his right arm, and a progressive paralysis of his legs that multiple surgeries failed to correct. By the early 1920s he was largely dependent on others for daily life.

In July 1923, Traynor joined the first pilgrimage of the Archdiocese of Liverpool to Lourdes. On the third day of the pilgrimage, after being immersed in the sanctuary baths, he reported being instantly and completely healed. He rose unaided, his arm function restored and his seizures gone. Doctors traveling with the pilgrimage examined him at the time and could offer no medical explanation.

Traynor returned to Lourdes in July 1926 to testify before a collegial medical investigation. The assembled physicians concluded that the cure was scientifically inexplicable. Despite this finding, official recognition through the Archdiocese of Liverpool did not follow — postwar communication disruptions and the complexity of the administrative process meant the case remained locally known but formally unrecognized for nearly a century.

Traynor went on to father several children, became a member of the Hospilalité of Lourdes (the volunteer corps that assists pilgrims), and returned to the shrine on annual pilgrimage until his death in 1943.

His case was rediscovered in 2023 during centenary research. A complete dossier was assembled and forwarded by Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of Tarbes and Lourdes to the Archdiocese of Liverpool. On December 8, 2024 — the feast of the Immaculate Conception — Archbishop Malcolm McMahon of Liverpool formally recognized the cure as miraculous, making it the 71st declared miracle at Lourdes and the first attributed to an English-speaking recipient.