PARIS - Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre is the French nun whose testimony of a mystery cure from Parkinson's disease will likely be accepted as the miracle the Vatican needs to beatify Pope John Paul II, an official at the Paris maternity hospital where she works said yesterday.
The identity of the nun has been closely guarded. The nun says she was cured of Parkinson's after she and her community of nuns prayed to Pope John Paul.
The nun, a member of the Congregation of Little Sisters of Catholic Motherhood in Aix-en-Provence in southeast France, works at the Sainte-Felicite hospital in Paris, the official said on condition of anonymity because an official announcement was expected Sunday.
In Rome, Msgr. Slawomir Oder, the Polish cleric spearheading the John Paul beatification cause, said the bishop in the woman's diocese would announce details about her case during his Palm Sunday Mass this weekend.
French newspaper Le Figaro, in an unsourced report late yesterday on its Web site, first identified the nun by name, saying she was 45 years old.
The nun is traveling to Rome for ceremonies Monday marking the second anniversary of the pontiff's death and the closure of a church investigation into his life.
The Vatican's process for sainthood requires that Pope John Paul's life and writings be studied for its virtues. The Vatican also requires that a miracle attributed to his intercession be confirmed, before he can be beatified, the last formal step before possible sainthood.
Pope Benedict XVI announced in May, 2005, that he was waiving the traditional five-year waiting period and allowing the beatification process to begin.
Only one document about the nun's experience has been made public: an article she wrote for "Totus Tuus," the official magazine of Pope John Paul's beatification case.
She wrote of being diagnosed with Parkinson's in June, 2001, having a strong spiritual affinity for Pope John Paul because he too suffered from the disease, and suffering worsened symptoms in the weeks after the pope died on April 2, 2005.
The nuns of her community prayed for her, and exactly two months after the pontiff's death, she awoke cured, she wrote.
First Published March 29, 2007, 9:28 a.m.
