EUCHARISTIC MIRACLE

On the 17th of
December, 1899, the fast mail on
the way from Bordeaux to Paris
met with a collision. In the mail
car was Gabriel Gargam, a 30-
year-old post office express
clerk. At the time of the wreck
the train was going at the speed
of fifty miles an hour. By the
crash Gargam was thrown fifty-
two feet. He was terribly
bruised and broken and
paralyzed from the waist down.
He was barely alive when lifted
onto a stretcher. Taken to a
hospital, his existence for some
time was a living death. After
eight months he had wasted away
to a mere skeleton, weighing but
seventy-eight pounds, although
normally a big man. His feet
became gangrenous. He could
take no solid food and was
obliged to take nourishment by a
tube. Only once in twenty-four
hours could he be fed even that
way.
Gargam's condition was
pitiable in the extreme. He could
not help himself even in the most
trifling needs. Two trained
nurses were needed day and
night to assist him. Previous to
the accident, Gargam had not
been to church for fifteen
years. His aunt, who was a nun
of the Order of the Sacred
Heart, begged him to go to
Lourdes. He refused. She
continued her appeals to him to
place himself in the hands of Our
Lady of Lourdes. He was deaf
to all her prayers. After
continuous pleading of his
mother he consented to go to
Lourdes. It was now two years
since the accident, and not for a
moment had he left his bed all
that time. He was carried on a
stretcher to the train. The
exertion caused him to faint, and
for a full hour he was
unconscious. They were on the
point of abandoning the
pilgrimage, as it looked as if he
would die on the way, but the
mother insisted, and the journey
was made.
Arrived at Lourdes, he was
carried to the miraculous pool
and tenderly placed in its
waters–no effect. Rather a bad
effect resulted, for the exertion
threw him into a swoon and he
lay apparently dead. On the way
back they saw the procession of
the Blessed Sacrament
approaching. They stood aside to
let it pass, having placed a cloth
over the face of the man whom
they supposed to be dead.
As the priest passed
carrying the Sacred Host, he
pronounced Benediction over the
sorrowful group around the
covered body. Soon there was a
movement from under the
covering. To the amazement of
the bystanders, the body raised
itself to a sitting posture. While
the family were looking
dumbfounded and the spectators
gazed in amazement, Gargam
said in a full, strong voice that
he wanted to get up. He got up
and stood erect, walked a few
paces and said that he was
cured. The multitude looked in
wonder, and then fell on their
knees and thanked God for this
new sign of His power at the
shrine of His Blessed Mother.
For two years hardly any food
had passed his lips but now he
sat down to the table and ate a
hearty meal.
On August 20th, 1901, sixty
prominent doctors examined
Gargam. Without stating the
nature of the cure, they
pronounced him entirely cured.
Gargam, out of gratitude to God
in the Holy Eucharist and His
Blessed Mother, consecrated
himself to the service of the
invalids at Lourdes. Fifteen
years after his miraculous cure
he was still engaged in his
strenuous and devoted work. He
was for years a living, visible
testimony of the supernatural.

PRAYER:
May the Heart of
Jesus in the Most Blessed
Sacrament be praised, adored
and loved with grateful
affection, at every moment, in
all the tabernacles of the world,
even to the end of time.