Curing Floribeth Mora Diaz: Pope John Paul II’s miracle

Floribeth Mora Diaz was supposed to have only a month to live.

That’s what doctors told her in April of 2011, after they diagnosed a brain aneurysm. Mora Diaz didn’t have the money to travel for surgery, so she went home with her family, crying and praying.

However, Mora Diaz is still alive today, three years later. Her recovery is counted as one of Pope John Paul II’s miracles, making the Costa Rican woman central to the former pope’s canonization this past Sunday.

SEE ALSO: Pope Francis declares John Paul II and John XXIII saints

No apparent medical explanation

Mora Diaz, who was and is extremely devoted to John Paul, spent a lot of time praying to the late pope while trying to cope with what she believed was impending death.

It so happened that on May 1st, 2011, she turned on the TV to watch John Paul’s beatification at the Vatican. Mora Diaz drifted to sleep, but as she woke up, she believes she heard the late pope’s voice telling her to “Get up! Don’t be afraid!”

According to her account in the Catholic Herald, the 50-year-old Costa Rican woman felt suddenly at peace: she had the strange intuition that she was healed, telling her family that her illness was gone.

While her family didn’t have the money to pay for new tests right away, she eventually returned to her doctor, who conducted another brain MRI. The scan was negative for any aneurysm, confounding both medical experts and Mora Diaz’s family. The neurosurgeon working on Mora Diaz’s case, Alejandro Vargas Roman, was quoted in Business Insider as saying that he “cannot explain it from a medical standpoint.”

While maybe not as convinced as his patient, he admitted that he “can believe it was a miracle.” Mora Diaz adamantly attributes her inexplicable healing to “the intercession of John Paul II.”

Visiting the vatican

After realizing that she was no longer in danger of dying, Mora Diaz began telling her story. She first posted it to a website associated with John Paul’s beatification.

That story eventually found its way to the Vatican. Officials were eager to bring Mora Diaz to Rome in order to get examined by a church-affiliated doctor, but they did it under maximum secrecy: according to the Costa Rican woman, she was supposed to play a tourist fallen ill.

After ascertaining that Mora Diaz was healthy, the Vatican declared that her recovery could not be attributed to science. Pope Francis officially declared the case a miracle in July of 2013, making John Paul eligible for sainthood.

SEE ALSO: How well do you know the Popes

Blessed craziness

Not everyone buys the miracle explanation.

Many have suggested that Mora Diaz is “crazy” to think that John Paul interceded and healed a brain aneurysm.

Despite that, the mother of four firmly maintains her belief, speaking to Vatican reporters a few days before John Paul’s canonization. She said that if she’s crazy, “‘then it is a blessed craziness, because I’m healthy.’”

Mora Diaz attended the sainthood ceremony on Sunday with her family.