The Royal Navy sailor is believed to be the first British Catholic to be cured at Lourdes
On December 8, 2024, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, Archbishop Malcolm McMahon of Liverpool (England) reported the miraculous healing of John Traynor, a sailor in the British Royal Navy, on the 81st anniversary of his death.
His was the 71st miracle approved at Lourdes. In 2023, Dr. Alessandro de Franciscis asked for a review of the Traynor’s case. Dr. Kieran Moriaty, an English doctor and member of the International Medical Committee of Lourdes, completed the review.
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In his research, Dr. Moriaty discovered many records in the Lourdes archives, including testimonies of the three doctors who examined Traynor before and after his healing.
With this evidence in hand, doctors announced Traynor’s case was unexplainable. Following that determination, Archbishop Malcolm McMahon of Liverpool declared it miraculous.
“Given the weight of medical evidence, the testimony to the faith of John Traynor and his devotion to Our Blessed Lady, it is with great joy that I declare that the cure of John Traynor, from multiple serious medical conditions, is to be recognized as a miracle wrought by the power of God through the intercession of Our Lady of Lourdes.”
The Traynor case is an example of the Church’s care when approving a miracle. The Lourdes Medical Bureau, which analyzes possible miraculous cures, has recorded 7,000 “medically unexplained” cures since 1905. However, of these, only 70 have been declared “miraculous” by the Church.
From a Deeply Catholic family
John Traynor was born in Liverpool in 1883 to an Irish mother. She died when he was young. Traynor explained that “her devotion to Mass and holy Communion,” as well as her reliance on Our Blessed Mother, inspired him throughout his life. He recalled his mother’s attendance at daily Mass at a time when the practice was quite uncommon.
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Battle Sequels
At the start of the Great War (1914-1918), John Traynor took part in the siege of Antwerp. There, he received his first wound. While carrying a wounded officer from the battlefield, He was hit in the head by scrap metal. The damage from the wound must have been slight, for he recovered quickly. He returned to duty within a few days.
In April 1915, he was part of the disastrous amphibious landing at Gallipoli on the coast of the Dardanelles, a narrow passage between the Mediterranean and Black Seas. This strategically important body of water was controlled by the Muslim-ruled Ottoman Empire. For ten months, British and French troops tried unsuccessfully to capture the peninsula. Traynor was one of the very few soldiers who went ashore on the first day of the landing despite an onslaught of machine-gun fire from the Ottomans, who planted their weapons at the top of steep ravines by the beach. For more than a week, he dodged bullets as he tried to lead the small group of sailors who landed with his as they attempted to reach and disable the Turkish guns.
On May 8, while attempting a bayonet charge, the fearless sailor received a machine-gun blast to the head, chest and arm. His injuries left him paralyzed in his right arm and leg. They also left him susceptible to epileptic seizures. Doctors tried to repair the damaged nerves in his arm and treat the head injuries but were unsuccessful. The paralysis and seizures continued, and Seaman Traynor was declared “completely and incurably incapacitated.” He was sent back to England to attempt to rebuild his life.
In 1923, eight years after the battle, Traynor was assigned to a hospital for incurables. At that point, ignoring his wife’s pleas and the advice of his doctors and priests, he took matters into his own hands. He heard of a parish pilgrimage to Lourdes from July 22 to 27, 1923. Placing his faith in Our Lady and ignoring all the other voices, he determined to go.
An Effect of the Shrine’s Baths
During the first three days of the trip, although seriously ill and facing down the reluctance of friends and the local attendants, Traynor “succeeded in being bathed nine times in the water from the grotto spring.”
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At first, his condition deteriorated. On the second day, while on his way to the bath, he suffered a severe epileptic seizure. “Blood flowed from my mouth, and the doctors were very much alarmed.” Traynor refused all attempts to take him back to his lodgings. Desperately, he used his good hand to engage the wheelchair’s brakes. “They took me into the bath and bathed me in the usual way.” Then, the miracle began. “I never had an epileptic fit after that.”
The next day, his miraculous healing continued. While in the bath, he felt a sensation in his paralyzed right leg. It became “violently agitated.” He had suddenly regained its use. The men attending him thought that he was suffering another epileptic seizure. At his insistence, they took him to the shrine’s Church of the Holy Rosary for the Eucharistic procession.
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The Archbishop of Reims passed him in the church, bearing the Blessed Sacrament. At that moment, his right arm also became “violently agitated,” in the same way his leg had been a few minutes earlier. Instantly, he removed his bandages. He was able to cross himself for the first time since the battle.
Knowing he was healed, Traynor jumped out of bed the next morning. He immediately ran to the grotto. He made an act of thanksgiving in front of Our Lady’s statue.
“My mother always taught me that you should make a sacrifice when asking Our Lady a favor or wishing to show her special veneration. I had no money to offer, as I had spent my last few shillings on rosaries and medals for my wife and children, but kneeling there before the Blessed Mother, I made the only sacrifice I could think of: I resolved to give up cigarettes.”
Official Verification
On the last day of the pilgrimage, three doctors examined Mr. Traynor. They noted that he could walk perfectly and could fully use his right arm and leg. They also certified that his epileptic seizures had ceased and that the sores on his skin when he arrived in Lourdes were completely healed. Moreover, an opening that doctors had created in his skull to relieve pressure on his brain had begun, on its own, to close.
About a week later, the doctors at Lourdes issued an official report stating that Traynor’s “extraordinary cure is absolutely beyond and above the powers of nature.”
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In the years following his cure, Mr. Traynor and his loving wife—who had initially resisted his pilgrimage—had three children. They named one of his daughters, Bernadette, after the girl who first saw Our Lady at Lourdes in 1858. Interestingly, the shrine’s website states that the Lourdes authorities believe that John Traynor is the first British Catholic to be cured in Lourdes.
According to the BBC, Mr. Traynor returned home and went into the coal business. For the rest of his active line, he routinely carried sacks of coal into his customers’ homes. However, the British authorities were never convinced that he was healed. They continued to pay his disability pension until Mr. Traynor died in 1940.
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