The case of Mayline Tran is the healing recognized as miraculous that opened the way to the beatification of Pauline-Marie Jaricot (1799–1862), a Catholic venerable — beatified in 2022 —, foundress of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith and the Living Rosary. On 29 May 2012, in Lyon, Mayline Tran, aged three and a half, choked on a piece of food. Resuscitated after several cardiac arrests, she entered a deep anoxic coma — Glasgow 3, bilaterally subtotal abolition of the N20 wave, documented brain necrosis — which the medical team described as irreversible. The proposal to withdraw treatment was put to her parents. They refused.
A novena to Pauline-Marie Jaricot began on 15 June 2012, carried by Mayline's Catholic school in Lyon and by the worldwide network of the Living Rosary. On 2 July, Mayline was transferred to Lenval hospital in Nice. Her father immediately noticed a change in her eyes. Neurological recovery set in, progressive and measurable, until a complete healing verifiable two years later. Medical follow-up continued until 2019; the diocesan inquiry was conducted from 20 July 2018 to 28 February 2019, then the dossier was examined in Rome in 2019. The pontifical decree was promulgated on 26 May 2020. Pauline Jaricot was beatified in Lyon on 22 May 2022, in Mayline's presence, then a teenager.[1]
This dossier matters to Catholic apologetics for several reasons: it is recent, medically traced at the electrode rather than by clinical impression, eight years separate the accident (2012) from the Roman decree (2020), and the recognition is formal — a pontifical decree, not an oral tradition. It does not constitute a mathematical proof of God's existence; no miracle works like a theorem. But it resists the ordinary reductions.
Pauline-Marie Jaricot and the 2012 jubilee year
A Lyonnaise foundress with worldwide works
Pauline-Marie Jaricot was born in Lyon on 22 July 1799 into a wealthy silk-merchant family. At seventeen, a spiritual crisis transformed her profoundly: abandoning worldly life, she consecrated herself to God by a solemn vow in the chapel of the Virgin of Fourvière before devoting her energy to two great foundations.[2]
In 1820, she organized fundraising for the missions: circles of ten people committed to giving regularly for the foreign missions. This initiative became the Society for the Propagation of the Faith (Œuvre de la Propagation de la Foi), recognized in Lyon in 1822, then handed over in 1922 by Pius XI to the Holy See under the name of the Pontifical Mission Societies.[3] In 1826, she founded the Living Rosary (Rosaire vivant): groups of fifteen members each committed to reciting one decade of the rosary daily, thus covering all the mysteries in a single day per group.[4]
She died on 9 January 1862, in total poverty following the failure of an industrial project at Rustrel (Vaucluse), intended to demonstrate that a factory could operate with respect for workers' dignity. Her beatification cause, introduced by Pius XI in 1926, was formally opened in Lyon in 1930.[5] John XXIII declared her venerable on 25 February 1963 (decree recognizing the heroicity of her virtues).[6]
The 2012 jubilee year: one hundred and fifty years after her death
9 January 2012 marked the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Pauline Jaricot's death. The Pontifical Mission Societies and the diocese of Lyon organized a jubilee year: pilgrimages, liturgical celebrations at Fourvière, renewal of the Living Rosary, historical publications. Lyon commemorated its missionary foundress throughout 2012.[7]
"It was the Pauline Jaricot jubilee year."[8]
This local fervour explains why, when Mayline fell gravely ill in May 2012, people close to her Catholic school in Lyon spontaneously thought of Pauline Jaricot as an intercessor. The coincidence is noted theologically in the canonical dossier: the requested miracle — and obtained — occurred in the very year of the jubilee commemoration of the woman whose beatification it would make possible.
The accident of 29 May 2012
The choking and the chain of first aid
On 29 May 2012, in the afternoon, Mayline Tran, aged three and a half, was playing at family friends' home in Lyon. She swallowed a small cocktail sausage, a piece of which blocked her airways. The choking was complete. The first clearance manoeuvres were attempted on the spot; the emergency services (SAMU) were called immediately.[9]
Rescue arrived quickly, but the situation was critical: several cardiac arrests followed one another. Mayline was rushed to the Women-Mother-Child Hospital (Hôpital Femme Mère Enfant, HFME) in Bron, in the east of the Lyon conurbation, a facility specializing in serious paediatric emergencies. During transport and on arrival, the arrests repeated, requiring repeated cardiopulmonary resuscitations. Her father, Emmanuel Tran, held her in his arms:
"In my arms I saw her dead, her eyes were deep and empty, the eyes of a dead person."[10]
The total duration of cerebral anoxia was significant. Neurological lesions from lack of oxygen occur after a few minutes of circulatory arrest, first in the most vulnerable brain regions — hippocampus, basal ganglia, cerebral cortex.[11]
The initial diagnosis: Glasgow 3 and brain necrosis
At the HFME, Mayline was taken into paediatric intensive care. The initial assessment was devastating:
"Mayline is in a brain state at Glasgow 3, the lowest possible level. She is in a coma."[12]
The Glasgow scale (Glasgow Coma Scale, GCS), published in 1974 by Teasdale and Jennett, assesses the level of consciousness through three responses: eye opening (maximum 4), verbal response (maximum 5), motor response (maximum 6). The maximum score is 15; a score of 3 represents the total absence of response in all three parameters — the deepest possible coma.[13] A post-anoxic Glasgow 3 is one of the most unfavourable prognostic indicators in paediatric intensive care.[14]
Mayline was placed on cardio-respiratory support (mechanical ventilation, haemodynamic support) and artificial feeding. Brain imaging revealed extensive areas of necrosis in several cortical and subcortical regions.[15]
The N20 wave: definition and prognostic value
What is the N20 wave?
The N20 wave, or somatosensory N20, is a short-latency somatosensory evoked potential (SSEP). It corresponds to the electrical response generated by the primary somatosensory cortex (area S1) when an electrical stimulation is applied to the median nerve at the wrist. The electrical signal travels up the somatosensory pathway (median nerve → spinal cord → thalamus → cortex), and the N20 component — N for its negative character, 20 for the latency of about 20 milliseconds — reflects the activation of layer 4 of the primary cortex.[16]
It is an objective neurophysiological examination: the measurement depends neither on the patient's cooperation nor on the clinician's subjective assessment. It can be repeated at regular intervals. In post-anoxic comas, SSEPs have been, since the 1990s, the most reliable available neurological prognostic marker in intensive care.[17]
Bilateral abolition: very high, but not absolute, predictive value
When the N20 wave is absent on both sides — neither on the right nor on the left — in a post-anoxic coma, the medical literature recognizes it as having a very high predictive value for an unfavourable outcome: the reference review of the American Academy of Neurology (Wijdicks et al., Neurology, 2006) found a specificity close to 100%, with a false-positive rate of 0.7% in the series reviewed.[18]
Two qualifications frame this figure. First, the 2006 review covers adult patients, based on data collected before the era of therapeutic hypothermia: its direct extrapolation to a three-and-a-half-year-old child calls for caution, and subsequent European recommendations keep bilateral N20 absence among the most reliable prognostic criteria without making it an absolute taken in isolation from the other clinical signs.[19] Second, these statistics concern complete bilateral abolition of the wave. Yet Mayline's case, as reported in the OPM dossier, is subtotal: a wave "abolished on one side" and "very faintly present on the opposite side", a finding repeated three times, then described a few weeks later as a bilateral loss.[20] It is on this basis — and not on a complete abolition from the outset — that the Lyon team set its prognosis of irreversibility.
The diagnosis of the Lyon medical team
The HFME neurophysiology team ordered the somatosensory evoked potential examination. The results were communicated to the intensive care physicians and to the parents:
"The N20 wave is abolished on one side and remains very faintly present on the opposite side. [...] This course can only be negative. The N20 wave can never return."[21]
The examination was repeated. The result was identical. A third time, identical.[22] The medical team then had an unambiguous convergent picture: Glasgow 3, confirmed cerebral anoxia, necrosis on imaging, bilaterally subtotal abolition of SSEPs on three occasions. The conclusion was unequivocal: Mayline could not recover neurological functions allowing a conscious life.
The proposal to withdraw treatment
The Leonetti law and the medico-legal framework
Faced with an irremediable prognosis, the medical team brought the parents together in a collegial consultation. It raised the Leonetti law of 22 April 2005 — the French law on patients' rights and end of life — which authorizes physicians to stop treatments that are disproportionate or constitute "unreasonable obstinacy" when the medical situation is judged hopeless.[23] A physician explained to the parents that, in such conditions, the law allows resuscitation manoeuvres no longer to be undertaken.[24]
The concrete proposal was to stop artificial feeding and active resuscitation — which would amount to letting fade a life the physicians judged clinically lost. The wording was direct:
"We propose stopping feeding."[25]
The parents' refusal
The parents, Emmanuel and Nathalie Tran, refused. The mother answered simply:
"We cannot agree so quickly."[26]
This refusal was not a denial of the medical data. The parents heard the results and did not contest them scientifically. As Catholics, they felt they had no right to decide themselves to hasten the end. They prayed. Brother Antoine, who came to bring Mayline the blessing of the sick, exclaimed before the child, according to the OPM dossier:
"But this little girl is alive, how can they not see it? She is not going to die!"[27]
This point is fundamental for the subsequent apologetic analysis: Mayline's healing did not come after a new medical intervention. It did not follow an experimental treatment, nor surgery, nor a change of therapeutic protocol. It occurred while the child was in a situation medicine had formally judged irremediable. The gap between the medical prognosis and the actual outcome is precisely what the Church examines.
The novena to Pauline-Marie Jaricot (15–23 June 2012)
The initiative of Élisabeth d'Escayrac
The initiative for the novena did not come from the Tran family, which was then only weakly practising — Emmanuel Tran was not even baptized at the time of the accident.[28] It came from a mother of a pupil at the Cours Diot: the OPM dossier speaks of the parents of Alix, a primary-school pupil, who had already lost two children; Emmanuel Tran, in his book, names this mother Élisabeth d'Escayrac.[29][30] Thinking immediately of Pauline Jaricot — a Lyonnaise who had died one hundred and fifty years earlier, whose jubilee year was underway in the diocese — she proposed to the school headmistress that all the children of the school pray together.
Prayer from the Cours Diot
Mayline attended the Cours Diot, a Catholic school in Lyon. With the headmistress's agreement, the novena began on 15 June 2012 and ended on 23 June 2012 — nine days of intentional prayer, nominally dedicated to Mayline's healing through the intercession of the venerable.[31] The Tran parents, informed of it, had never prayed a novena in their lives, but they accepted: "everything is worth taking to feed our hope", Emmanuel would say.[32] During the same period, Mayline received the blessing of the sick: Brother Antoine, accompanied by Sister Véronique, came to bring it to her — the OPM dossier uses the word "sacrament".[33]
The Living Rosary network and the worldwide chain
Prayer did not remain local. It spread through the network of the Living Rosary, the very work founded by Pauline Jaricot herself in 1826: the Missionaries of the Living Rosary also prayed for Mayline, and messages arrived from Asia, Latin America and Jerusalem. The OPM dossier notes:
"For prayer travelled around the world!"[34]
This articulation is theologically significant: intercession was asked of Pauline Jaricot precisely through the prayer network she had founded — as if her own spiritual heirs were praying to their foundress for a child in danger of death. The postulator of the cause noted this link in the canonical dossier.[35]
Emmanuel's dream: "Lay these hands on your daughter's head"
During this same period, Emmanuel Tran had a dream he would describe at length in his book Sauvée par un miracle (Artège). He was in a lively brasserie. The sounds gradually faded, the lights dimmed, and he saw his own hands burst into flame without pain. A voice he described as "clear, powerful, without being threatening" addressed him:[36]
"Lay these hands on your daughter's head. [...] Do not be afraid, trust me, lay these hands on Mayline's head. She will be saved."[37]
On waking, he left in the middle of the night to see Mayline at the hospital. He did not dare perform the gesture, doubted, kept watch until the early morning. But the dream left, he would write, "the absolute disappearance of doubt" and "a feeling of total trust".[38] For Catholic spiritual analysis, this phenomenon is not part of the canonical dossier in the strict sense (the Congregation for the Causes of Saints judges on medical facts, not on the inner experiences of relatives); but it belongs to the complete narrative of the grace received, and testifies to an inner consolation given to a father not yet baptized at the moment medicine announced his child's imminent death.
The transfer to Nice and the first signs (2 July 2012)
Arrival at Lenval hospital
On 2 July 2012, Mayline was transferred to Lenval hospital in Nice, a specialized paediatric centre, closer to the home the family had recently settled on the Côte d'Azur. She arrived still in an artificial coma, on artificial feeding, with no sign of consciousness detectable by medical instruments.[39]
From the moment of arrival, her father noticed something the medical data did not yet show:
"Her eyes are different, the pupils are different, they shine [...]." [40]
This perception — imperceptible to a team reading figures, immediately perceived by a father — would be the first indication of an ongoing neurological awakening. The parents continued to pray.
Professor Richelme and care at Lenval
Professor Richelme took charge of Mayline at Lenval with his team. He knew the Lyon dossier, the N20 wave results, the prognosis given. His position was medically cautious: he resumed the examinations from scratch without committing himself to the HFME's conclusions from the outset. His announcement to the parents remained sombre, but in a different tone:
"Mayline will not die in my unit. But she will be severely handicapped."[41]
This nuance matters: Professor Richelme ruled out death in his unit and allowed time — which the Lyon team was no longer willing to do. He did not foresee recovery.
Progressive recovery (July 2012 – 2014)
The first clinical reactions
In the weeks following the transfer, discreet but reproducible signs appeared. The parents observed: a gaze following objects, micro-movements of the hands, a reaction to voices. The Lenval team recorded a progressive neurological improvement that did not match the expected trajectory. Doctor Fornari, a physician in the unit, was among the first to put into words what he observed:
"That is strange."[42]
That word — from a physician trained not to over-interpret clinical signs — sums up the bafflement at a course the initial data had formally ruled out.
The first word
One precise moment is retained in every account of the Mayline case: the first word spoken by the child. The exact dates vary slightly from witness to witness, but the word itself is constant in all accounts:
MUMMY[43]
Mayline spoke her mother's name. For the parents, it was a direct answer to prayer. For neurologists, it was the sign of a recovery of the language circuits in a cortex the initial examination had declared irretrievably damaged.
The return of the N20 wave: observing the impossible
The Lenval team ordered a new series of somatosensory evoked potentials. The reaction of the specialist in charge of the examination is recorded in the OPM dossier:
"The N20 wave has returned bilaterally at one hundred percent, it is impossible!"[44]
The N20 wave, abolished on one side and almost absent on the other in the three repeated examinations in Lyon, had returned — on both sides — at normal intensity. Mayline's mother, Nathalie Tran, faced with those who would relativize the Lyon prognosis, answered precisely:
"They did not do a single examination, they did three examinations. The results were the same each time. And now the N20 wave has returned."[45]
The OPM dossier reports the astonishment of the radiologist comparing the MRIs — the very man who, he said, had performed the first images:
"I have never seen such a recovery! [...] The brain that had uniformly lost volume has regained all of its place. [...] The spaces between the skull and the brain are quite normal. [...] Her brain was like lace, and it is as if regenerated!"[46]
His assistant, present at the reading of the images, exclaimed, according to the same dossier:
"It is a miracle!"[47]
Rehabilitation and the return to normal life
Mayline spent several months in rehabilitation with an intensive motor and language programme. Progress was steady: sitting up, standing, walking, increasingly fluent speech, memory, reasoning. She went back to school and the follow-up examination of May 2014 — two years after the accident — medically confirmed the healing.[48]
In spring 2013, during a follow-up consultation, Professor Richelme offered a comparison that would sum up the medical perception of the dossier:
"Imagine you are in a car on the motorway. You are driving quietly and suddenly you run out of petrol. You pull over to the side. The engine stops. You wait a few moments, then you decide to turn the key to restart. And all at once, your engine restarts and you can drive forever without petrol. Is that possible? No, it is impossible. Well, that is Mayline."[49][50]
In his book, Emmanuel Tran reports that the medical dossier handed to the parents bears in the margin the words "EXTRAORDINARY RECOVERY", in capital letters.[51]
The canonical inquiry (2017–2020)
Building the diocesan dossier
Mayline's healing was reported to the postulator of Pauline Jaricot's cause, Father Philippe Curbelié. Building the dossier took several years: collecting and authenticating the original medical documents (HFME and Lenval records, SSEP examinations, brain imaging, medical reports), gathering sworn depositions from witnesses (parents, physicians, caregivers, members of the prayer groups), verifying the chain between prayer and healing.
On 8 December 2017, the postulator petitioned the Archbishop of Lyon with a libellus.[52] The diocesan inquiry into the presumed healing was then conducted at the Lyon ecclesiastical tribunal from 20 July 2018 to 28 February 2019; the acts were filed with the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, whose rescript of 21 March 2019 opened the acts and whose ordinary congress of 5 April recognized their juridical validity.[53] This inquiry prepared the dossier for Rome without itself pronouncing on the supernatural character of the event. It heard witnesses under oath and verified the consistency of the depositions.
The Roman examination: procedure and bodies
The dossier was sent to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. The Roman procedure, governed by the instruction Sanctorum Mater of 17 May 2007 and, for the medical examination, by the regulations of the Medical Board approved in 2016 — which require a qualified majority of at least 5 votes out of 7, or 4 out of 6 — comprises four successive levels:[54][55]
| Body | Role in the procedure |
|---|---|
| Medical board (independent specialists) | Verifies whether the healing is inexplicable according to the current state of science |
| Consulting theologians | Studies the intercession-healing link, the intention of the prayer, the consistency of the faith dossier |
| Member cardinals and bishops | Deliberate on the whole and transmit their opinion to the pope |
| Pope | Authorizes promulgation of the decree if the conclusions are positive |
The medical board examined the dossier on documents alone, independently of the postulation, and could order its own examinations: Mayline was thus examined at the Gemelli hospital in Rome in May 2019. In November 2019, the board of expert physicians pronounced on the inexplicable character of the healing; the theologians confirmed in December 2019 the link with the intercession of Venerable Pauline Jaricot. The prefect of the Congregation then presented the dossier to the pope in April 2020.[56]
The pontifical decree of 26 May 2020
On 26 May 2020, Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing the miracle attributed to the intercession of Venerable Pauline-Marie Jaricot. The text was published by the Holy See Press Office on 27 May 2020.[57]
This decree is neither a dogmatic revelation nor a declaration on the nature of God. It means that the Catholic Church, after rigorous examination by its competent bodies — medical, theological and pontifical — judges Mayline's healing to be medically inexplicable and the link with Pauline Jaricot's intercession sufficiently established to serve as the first miracle required for a beatification. The Pontifical Mission Societies, founded by Pauline Jaricot, welcomed the decree as a joy for their whole network.[58]
The beatification of Pauline Jaricot (22 May 2022)
Pauline-Marie Jaricot was beatified at the Eurexpo complex, in Lyon, on 22 May 2022. The ceremony gathered nearly 12,000 faithful.[59] Mayline Tran, then thirteen years old, was present with her family: it was she who led the procession bringing to the altar Pauline's cross — the one she had received from the Curé of Ars — and the relic of her heart.[60]
Her father, Emmanuel Tran, testified publicly in several Catholic media about the events of 2012. He told Aleteia in particular:
"We are ordinary people in an almost ordinary world, and yet it is true, we experienced a miracle."[61]
Cardinal Tagle, who presided over the beatification Mass, presented in his homily the three gifts received by Pauline — the word of Jesus, the Holy Spirit and peace — and invited all to be Christians "in love" with Christ and missionary.[62]
Apologetic value of the dossier
A case resistant to ordinary explanations
The Mayline Tran dossier presents a convergence of elements that gives it unusual solidity among contemporary Catholic miracles:
| Criterion | Situation in the Mayline dossier |
|---|---|
| Objectively established initial gravity | Glasgow 3, cerebral anoxia, necrosis documented on imaging |
| Measurable neurophysiological criterion | Bilaterally subtotal abolition of the N20 wave — 3 repeated examinations at the HFME |
| Unequivocal prognosis | "This course can only be negative" — HFME specialist |
| Absence of explanatory treatment | No new intervention between the prognosis and the recovery |
| Precise and dated intercession | Novena to Pauline Jaricot from 15 to 23 June 2012 |
| Measurable recovery | Bilateral return of the N20 wave, return of language, normal life in 2014 |
| Lasting effect | Mayline present at the beatification, May 2022 — ten years later |
| Long multidisciplinary investigation | Libellus (2017), diocesan inquiry (2018–2019), medical board and theologians (2019), decree (2020) |
This structure does not constitute a mathematical proof. A miracle is not a theorem. But the disproportion between a measured state — not merely described, but recorded at the electrode — and an outcome that led the physician himself to speak of impossibility is real and documented. It requires taking the dossier seriously rather than dismissing it.
Answers to four sceptical objections
Catholic apologetics does not ask the reader to hold the miracle as proven a priori. It asks that the classic objections be read and that it be examined whether any one of them accounts for all the documented facts. Four main objections are raised against the Mayline Tran dossier; none stands up to the convergent evidence.
Objection 1 — "Physicians make mistakes; prognoses can be wrong"
Answer: yes, prognoses can be wrong, and physicians know it. That is precisely why the canonical procedure requires the healing to be not only present but lasting (Mayline, examined ten years later, is healthy and schooled normally), complete (return to schooling and cognitive functions), and medically inexplicable in the current state of science (the verdict of an independent medical board, not of a single clinician). The triple repetition of the SSEP examination in Lyon, corroborated by the Lenval measurements showing the return of the absent wave, makes the simple hypothesis of a measurement error difficult. The follow-up MRI performed by the same radiologist — the one who, he said, had made the first images — confirms the regression of the lesions: "I made the first MRIs myself, I know what I am doing! [...] I have never seen such a recovery."[63]
Objection 2 — "Rare but spontaneous recoveries are possible without a miracle"
Answer: possible in principle. In practice, the reference review (Wijdicks et al., 2006) found only a 0.7% false-positive rate for complete bilateral abolition of post-anoxic SSEPs — and Mayline's subtotal case lies outside the exact frame of even that statistic.[64][65] The Nice physician who receives the new evoked-potential results says himself: "It is impossible, the N20 wave has returned bilaterally at one hundred percent, it is impossible!"[66] Rarity alone does not make a miracle; but so low a false-positive rate, combined with an exact temporal coincidence with the novena, requires seriously examining every hypothesis — including the supernatural hypothesis — rather than excluding one on philosophical principle.
Objection 3 — "Paediatric brain plasticity can explain unexpected recoveries"
Answer: paediatric brain plasticity is real and greater than in adults. It applies to the progressive reorganization of partially affected functions, over months or years, starting from still-functional brain tissue. It does not explain the regeneration of the parenchyma observed on MRI nor the return of an electrophysiological wave declared irreversibly absent within weeks. The radiologist, according to the OPM dossier, does not say the brain reorganized itself; he says the brain, "which had uniformly lost volume, regained all of its place", that "the spaces between the skull and the brain are quite normal" and that this brain, "which was like lace, [...] is as if regenerated".[67] This description falls outside the ordinary frame of neuroplasticity as defined by textbooks.[68]
Objection 4 — "The Church had an interest in finding a miracle to beatify Pauline Jaricot"
Answer: this objection explains a possible motive, not a medical fact. The Medical Board of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints examines the dossier on documents alone, independently of the postulation, and pronounces by the qualified majority required by the 2016 regulations, precisely to neutralize institutional bias.[69] Moreover, the Church did not beatify Pauline Jaricot in 1962, in 1990 or in 2000: it waited for a dossier that would pass all the filters of the ordinary procedure for nearly ninety years. The OPM dossier itself notes that "many healing dossiers may have been presented over all these years, without a strong conviction leading to the recognition of an unexplained event".[70] It is not the fact that the cause advances that creates the miracle — it is the recognized miracle that allows the cause to advance.
The spiritual dawn of the Tran family
The Mayline Tran dossier is not limited to medical healing. Its spiritual scope is measured by a fruit the canonical procedure does not retain as proof, but which theologians rank among the derived fruits of the miracle: the conversion of Emmanuel Tran. A non-baptized father at the time of the accident, he testifies in his book Sauvée par un miracle (Artège) to the spiritual journey that led him from common rationalism to explicit Christian faith, then to baptism.[71]
Emmanuel Tran was baptized after the events and testifies publicly, notably to Aleteia, and in several Christian media. He published his account with Artège (Perpignan).[72]
Mayline, now a teenager, was present at the beatification of Pauline Jaricot in Lyon on 22 May 2022, healthy and schooled normally. She continues to testify to her own story, insofar as a girl of her age can describe events experienced before she was four, as one tells a part of oneself given back by others.
To go further
- Miraculous healings — medical criteria, canonical procedure of discernment.
- What is a miracle? — theological definition, distinction from ordinary providence.
- Pauline-Marie Jaricot — biography of the blessed, foundations, spiritual heritage.
- The case of Madame R (Rolande Lefebvre) — another documented and recognized contemporary Catholic miracle.
Notes and References
OPM, L'histoire d'un miracle, Series 8 and 10, pp. 10-11 and 14-16: Professor Richelme's motorway metaphor; comparison of the MRIs by the radiologist ("I have never seen such a recovery! [...] her brain was like lace, and it is as if regenerated!") and his assistant's exclamation ("It is a miracle!"); medical confirmation of May 2014; postulator's libellus petitioning the Archbishop of Lyon on 8 December 2017; diocesan inquiry from 20 July 2018 to 28 February 2019; rescript opening the acts of 21 March 2019 and juridical validity recognized on 5 April; Mayline's examination at the Gemelli hospital in Rome in May 2019; vote of the board of expert physicians in November 2019 then of the theologians in December 2019; "many healing dossiers may have been presented [...] without a strong conviction leading to the recognition of an unexplained event". Ibid.
1 46 47 48 49 52 53 56 63 67 70Pontifical Mission Societies (France), biography of Pauline-Marie Jaricot: born 22 July 1799 in Lyon into a silk-merchant family, conversion at 17 and solemn vow at Fourvière, creation of the Living Rosary, initiative of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith (recognized in Lyon in 1822), died 9 January 1862. Source: paulinejaricot.opm-france.org (the former ppoomm.va notice is no longer online — page returning 404, verified 4 October 2026).
2Pius XI, apostolic constitution Romanorum Pontificum, 3 May 1922: handing over of the Pontifical Mission Societies to the Holy See — the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, founded in Lyon in 1820 by Pauline Jaricot, becomes pontifical.
3Jaricot, Pauline, Mémoire sur l'établissement du Rosaire vivant, Lyon, 1826: description of the organization in groups of fifteen members, each reciting one decade of the rosary per day, thus covering all the mysteries in one day per group.
4Cause introduced by Pius XI in 1926 (tribute to Pauline Jaricot's missionary genius) then formally opened in Lyon in 1930, with the title of Servant of God — the spiritual writings having been approved by a commission of theologians as early as 27 May 1925. Sources: Catholic Witness (process initiated by Pius XI in 1926), FSSPX.news and cgfmanet (cause introduced in 1926); formal opening on 18 January 1930 (Wikipedia "Pauline Jaricot").
5Decree recognizing the heroicity of the virtues of Pauline-Marie Jaricot, 25 February 1963, promulgated by John XXIII: heroic virtues of charity, faith, hope, prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance.
6Pontifical Mission Societies, L'histoire d'un miracle : Mayline Tran et Pauline Jaricot, PDF dossier (16 pp.), Series 1, p. 3: "it was the Pauline Jaricot jubilee year". Source: ppoomm.va.
7 8OPM, L'histoire d'un miracle, Series 1, pp. 2-3: account of the choking of 29 May 2012, SAMU intervention, transport to the HFME in Bron, repeated cardiac arrests, quotation from Emmanuel Tran. Ibid.
9 10Taccone, F. S., Cronberg, T., Friberg, H. et al., "How to assess prognosis after cardiac arrest and therapeutic hypothermia", Critical Care, 18(1), 2014, art. 202 (PMID 24417885): review of post-anoxic brain injury and its prognostic tools, including somatosensory evoked potentials; bilateral hippocampal signals described as specific indicators of global hypoxic-ischaemic injury. Source: PMC4056000. (The reference previously cited here could not be found in the authors' publications and has been replaced.)
11OPM, L'histoire d'un miracle, Series 1, pp. 2-3: Glasgow 3, confirmed cerebral anoxia, necrosis documented on imaging, placement on cardio-respiratory support and artificial feeding. Ibid.
12 15Teasdale, G., Jennett, B., "Assessment of coma and impaired consciousness: a practical scale", The Lancet, 2(7872), 13 July 1974, pp. 81-84: founding article of the Glasgow scale, defining the three parameters — eye opening (4), verbal response (5), motor response (6) — and the total score from 3 to 15.
13Booth, C. M., Boone, R. H., Tomlinson, G., Detsky, A. S., "Is this patient dead, vegetative, or severely neurologically impaired? Assessing outcome for comatose survivors of cardiac arrest", JAMA, 291(7), 2004, pp. 870-879: Glasgow 3 on admission correlated with death or severe sequelae in more than 90% of post-anoxic cases.
14Cruccu, G., Aminoff, M. J., Curio, G. et al., "Recommendations for the clinical use of somatosensory-evoked potentials", Clinical Neurophysiology, 119(8), August 2008, pp. 1705-1719: IFCN recommendations on SSEPs, anatomy of the generators of the N20 wave (layer 4 of the primary somatosensory cortex S1).
16Houlden, D. A., "Somatosensory evoked potentials as a prognostic tool after cardiac arrest", in Evoked Potentials — Basic Principles and Clinical Application, InTech, 2012, pp. 209-234: history of the clinical use of SSEPs in post-anoxic comas since the 1990s.
17Wijdicks, E. F. M., Hijdra, A., Young, G. B. et al. (Quality Standards Subcommittee), "Practice parameter: prediction of outcome in comatose survivors after cardiopulmonary resuscitation", Neurology, 67(2), July 2006, pp. 203-210: bilateral absence of the N20 component of SSEPs identified as a reliable predictor of poor outcome, with specificity close to 100% and a false-positive rate of 0.7% in the series reviewed — series covering adults, based on data collected before the era of therapeutic hypothermia.
18 64Nolan, J. P., Neumar, R. W., Adrie, C. et al. (International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation), Post-cardiac arrest syndrome, Resuscitation, 79(3), 2008, pp. 350-379; and European Resuscitation Council Guidelines (2005), Section 5: "Bilateral absence of cortical SSEP responses (N20) is the most reliable predictor of poor neurological outcome in comatose survivors of cardiac arrest."
19OPM, L'histoire d'un miracle, Series 2, pp. 4-5: results of the somatosensory evoked potentials (neurophysiology unit, HFME) — wave "abolished on one side" and "very faintly present on the opposite side", finding repeated three times, irreversible prognosis ("this course can only be negative", "the N20 wave can never return"). Ibid.
20 21 22 65Law no. 2005-370 of 22 April 2005 on patients' rights and end of life, known as the Leonetti law, Journal officiel de la République française, no. 95, 23 April 2005, p. 7089: article 1 — where a medical situation appears to involve unreasonable obstinacy, "acts of prevention, investigation or care may be suspended or not undertaken."
23OPM, L'histoire d'un miracle, Series 2, pp. 4-5: collegial meeting, presentation of the Leonetti law to the parents, proposal to stop artificial feeding, Nathalie Tran's reply ("We cannot agree, so quickly"), refusal of the parents. Ibid.
24 25 26OPM, L'histoire d'un miracle, Series 1 and 3, pp. 3 and 6: parents of Alix who had already lost two children, novena of 15 to 23 June 2012 organized with the Cours Diot, Missionaries of the Living Rosary, "for prayer travelled around the world!"; blessing of the sick brought by Brother Antoine accompanied by Sister Véronique ("this sacrament"), and his exclamation: "but this little girl is alive, how can they not see it? She is not going to die!" Ibid.
27 29 31 33 34 35Emmanuel Tran, Sauvée par un miracle, Artège, Perpignan: autobiographical account by Mayline's father. Emmanuel Tran specifies there that he was neither baptized nor practising at the time of the accident — conversion came as a fruit of the miracle. (The existence of the book is attested, notably by Michael Journal; the cited year of publication varies by source — 2018 or 2022 — and could not be settled here: it is no longer asserted.)
28 32Tran, Sauvée par un miracle: account of the novena proposal by Élisabeth d'Escayrac, mother of a pupil at the Cours Diot, who proposed to the school headmistress organizing a novena to Pauline-Marie Jaricot by the whole school community. The OPM dossier, for its part, speaks of the parents of Alix, in primary school, who had already lost two children — without giving a name.[^ppm-s6]
30Tran, Sauvée par un miracle, chapter devoted to Emmanuel's dream: description of the dream, the voice, the night return to the hospital and the lasting inner consolation. Account specific to the book — the OPM dossier does not include it. (The mention of a confirmation on RCF previously added here could not be found at the exact source and has been removed.)
36 37 38OPM, L'histoire d'un miracle, Series 4, p. 7: transfer of 2 July 2012, arrival at Lenval, Mayline's gaze noticed by her father, quotation from Professor Richelme ("Mayline will not die in my unit [...], she will be severely handicapped"). Ibid.
39 40 41OPM, L'histoire d'un miracle, Series 5-6, p. 8: progressive clinical signs, "That is strange" whispered by Doctor Fornari to his colleague, first word "MUMMY" recognized by the doctor ("Yes I understood, she said 'Mummy'!"). Ibid.
42 43OPM, L'histoire d'un miracle, Series 9, pp. 12-13: results of the new SSEPs ("It is impossible, the N20 wave has returned bilaterally at one hundred percent"), Nathalie Tran's reply on the three Lyon examinations ("They did not do a single examination, they did three identical examinations") and the board of five physicians. Ibid.
44 45 66Tran, Sauvée par un miracle, spring 2013 consultation: transcription of the dialogue between Emmanuel Tran and Professor Richelme — the running-out-of-petrol and motorway metaphor, formulated by the physician to express his clinical bafflement. Scene corroborated by the OPM dossier.[^ppm-s10]
50Tran, Sauvée par un miracle: Emmanuel Tran reports there that the medical dossier handed to the parents bears in the margin the words "EXTRAORDINARY RECOVERY", in capital letters. Words reported from the book — not verified on documents here.
51Congregation for the Causes of Saints, instruction Sanctorum Mater, 17 May 2007, art. 95-121: procedure for investigating alleged miracles in beatification causes — composition and role of the medical board, the consulting theologians, and the committee of member cardinals and bishops.
54Regulations of the Medical Board of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints approved in 2016 under the mandate of Pope Francis (Cardinal Parolin): the declaration of inexplicability henceforth requires a qualified majority of at least 5 votes out of 7, or 4 out of 6 — against the simple majority previously. Sources: Catholic News Service dispatch of 23 Sept. 2016 (Mgr Marcello Bartolucci, secretary of the Congregation); dwkcommentaries synthesis on the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
55 69Holy See Press Office, Promulgation of Decrees of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, 27 May 2020: decree on the miracle attributed to the intercession of Venerable Pauline-Marie Jaricot. Source: press.vatican.va.
57Pontifical Mission Societies, press release "Reconnaissance d'un miracle dû à l'intercession de la Vénérable Pauline Jaricot, la joie des Œuvres pontificales missionnaires", May 2020. Source: ppoomm.va. (The Cardinal Tagle quotation previously reproduced here could not be found at the exact source and has been removed.)
58Vatican News, Cardinal Tagle: Pauline Jaricot welcomed God's three gifts, 22 May 2022: beatification Mass at the Eurexpo complex in Lyon before nearly 12,000 faithful, in the presence of Mayline Tran, the "miracle recipient", and her family. Source: vaticannews.va.
59 62Mayline, 13, present at the ceremony with her family: National Catholic Register (CNA), French Laywoman Pauline Jaricot Is Beatified, 23 May 2022 ("Among those present [...] were 13-year-old Mayline Tran and her family"); Catholic Mission, "You shall be my witness": the procession was led by Mayline, who presented on the altar Pauline's wooden cross and the relic of her heart; the Aleteia interview specifies that it was the cross Pauline had received from the Curé of Ars. Sources: ncregister.com and catholicoutlook.org. (The RCF interview with Emmanuel Tran previously cited here could not be found at the exact source and has been removed.)
60Aleteia (France), interview with Emmanuel Tran around the beatification of Pauline Jaricot, May 2022: testimony of Mayline's father ("We are ordinary people in an almost ordinary world, and yet it is true, we have experienced a miracle" — words confirmed by the English version: "We are normal people in an almost normal world, and yet it is true, we have experienced a miracle"). English version reproduced by Michael Journal: michaeljournal.org.
61Anderson, V., Spencer-Smith, M., Wood, A., "Do children really recover better? Neurobehavioural plasticity after early brain insult", Brain, 134(8), August 2011, pp. 2197-2221: scientific review of paediatric brain plasticity. The authors specify that plasticity operates on partially affected functions and on still-functional tissue; it does not regenerate necrosed tissue.
68Tran, Sauvée par un miracle, final part: spiritual journey of Mayline's father, from initial rationalism to baptism and Catholic practice (baptism corroborated by Catholic Mission: the experience of the miracle "led him to be baptised"). Further testimony: Aleteia France interview (May 2022).[^aleteia-2022] (The RCF and KTO interviews previously cited here could not be found at the exact source and have been removed.)
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