Miracle

====Catholic Church====
{{See also|Marian apparition|Eucharistic Miracle|Stigmata|Weeping statue|Moving statues|Visions of Jesus and Mary|Incorruptibility|Perceptions of religious imagery in natural phenomena}}

The [[Catholic Church]] believes miracles are works of [[God]], either directly, or through the prayers and [[intercession of saints|intercessions]] of a specific [[saint]] or saints. There is usually a specific purpose connected to a miracle, e.g. the conversion of a person or persons to the Catholic faith or the construction of a church desired by God. The church says that it tries to be very cautious to approve the validity of putative miracles. The Catholic Church also says that it maintains particularly stringent requirements in validating the miracle's authenticity.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,982807,00.html |publisher = Pathfinder.com|title = Modern Miracles Have Strict Rules|date= 10 April 1995|last = Van Biema|first = David|url-status = dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070713212401/http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,982807,00.html|archive-date = 13 July 2007}}</ref> The process is overseen by the [[Congregation for the Causes of Saints]].<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.30giorni.it/us/articolo.asp?id=3664|website = 30giorni.it|title = The necessity of miracles|date = 2004|last = Falasca|first = Stefania|access-date = 2006-12-13|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070929084326/http://www.30giorni.it/us/articolo.asp?id=3664|archive-date = 2007-09-29|url-status = dead}}</ref>

The Catholic Church has listed several events as miracles, some of them occurring in modern times. Before a person can be accepted as a saint, they must be posthumously confirmed to have performed two miracles. In the procedure of [[Beatification and canonisation of Pope John Paul II|beatification of Pope John Paul II]], who died in 2005, the Vatican announced on 14 January 2011 that [[Pope Benedict XVI]] had confirmed that the recovery of Marie Simon-Pierre from [[Parkinson's disease]] was a miracle.<ref name="BBC-beatify">{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12191423|title=Pope Benedict Paves Way to Beatification of John Paul II|work=bbc.news.co.uk|access-date=14 January 2011|date=14 January 2011|archive-date=15 January 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110115052859/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12191423|url-status=live}}</ref>

Among the more notable miracles approved by the church are several [[Eucharistic miracle]]s wherein the [[Sacramental bread|sacramental species]] of bread and wine attain the accidents of human flesh and blood. Prominent examples are the [[Miracle of Lanciano]] and of [[Eucharistic miracle of Santarém|Santarém]].{{cn|date=April 2024}}

According to 17th century documents, a young Spanish [[miracle of Calanda|man's leg was miraculously restored]] to him in 1640 after having been amputated two and a half years earlier.<ref>[[Messori, Vittorio]] (2000): Il miracolo. Indagine sul più sconvolgente prodigio mariano. – Rizzoli: Bur.</ref>

Another miracle approved by the church is the [[Miracle of the Sun]], which is said to have occurred near [[Our Lady of Fatima|Fátima, Portugal]] on October 13, 1917. According to legend, between 70,000 and 100,000 people, who were gathered at a [[Cova da Iria|cove]] near Fátima, witnessed the sunlight dim and change colors, and the Sun spin, dance about in the sky, and appear to plummet towards Earth, radiating great heat in the process. After the ten-minute event, the ground and the people's clothing, which had been drenched by a previous rainstorm, were both dry.

[[Velankanni]] (Mary) can be traced to the mid-16th century and is attributed to three miracles: the apparition of [[Mary (mother of Jesus)|Mary]] and the [[Christ]] Child to a slumbering shepherd boy, the curing of a lame buttermilk vendor, and the rescue of [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]] sailors from a violent sea storm.<ref>[http://www.vailankannishrine.org/miracle.php Velankanni shrine miracle] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110128052924/http://vailankannishrine.org/miracle.php |date=2011-01-28 }}</ref>

In addition to these, the Catholic Church attributes miraculous causes to many otherwise inexplicable phenomena on a case-by-case basis. Only after all other possible explanations have been asserted to be inadequate will the church assume ''[[divine intervention]]'' and declare the miracle worthy of veneration by their followers. The church does not, however, enjoin belief in any extra-Scriptural miracle as an [[creed|article of faith]] or as necessary for [[salvation]].

[[Thomas Aquinas]], a prominent [[Doctor of the Church]], divided miracles into three types in his ''[[Summa contra Gentiles]]'':<blockquote>Things that are at times divinely accomplished, apart from the generally established order in things, are customarily called miracles; for we admire with some astonishment a certain event when we observe the effect but do not know its cause. And since one and the same cause is at times known to some people and unknown to others, the result is that of several who see an effect at the same time, some are moved to admiring astonishment, while others are not. For instance, the astronomer is not astonished when he sees an eclipse of the sun, for he knows its cause, but the person who is ignorant of this science must be amazed, for he ignores the cause. And so, a certain event is wondrous to one person, but not so to another. So, a thing that has a completely hidden cause is wondrous in an unqualified way, and this the name, miracle, suggests; namely, what is of itself filled with admirable wonder, not simply in relation to one person or another. Now, absolutely speaking, the cause hidden from every man is God. In fact, we proved above that no man in the present state of life can grasp His essence intellectually. Therefore, those things must properly be called miraculous which are done by divine power apart from the order generally followed in things.

Now, there are various degrees and orders of these miracles. Indeed, the highest rank among miracles is held by those events in which something is done by God which nature never could do. For example, that two bodies should be coincident; that the sun reverse its course, or stand still; that the sea open up and offer a way through which people may pass. And even among these an order may be observed. For the greater the things that God does are, and the more they are removed from the capacity of nature, the greater the miracle is. Thus, it is more miraculous for the sun to reverse its course than for the sea to be divided.

Then, the second degree among miracles is held by those events in which God does something which nature can do, but not in this order. It is a work of nature for an animal to live, to see, and to walk; but for it to live after death, to see after becoming blind, to walk after paralysis of the limbs, this nature cannot do—but God at times does such works miraculously. Even among this degree of miracles a gradation is evident, according as what is done is more removed from the capacity of nature.

Now, the third degree of miracles occurs when God does what is usually done by the working of nature, but without the operation of the principles of nature. For example, a person may be cured by divine power from a fever which could be cured naturally, and it may rain independently of the working of the principles of nature.<ref>{{cite book|title=Contra Gentiles, lib. III cap. 101|first=St. Thomas|last=Aquinas|author-link=Thomas Aquinas|url=http://josephkenny.joyeurs.com/CDtexts/ContraGentiles3b.htm#101|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091102035333/http://josephkenny.joyeurs.com/CDtexts/ContraGentiles3b.htm#100|archive-date=2009-11-02}}</ref></blockquote>