‘Miracle' nun visits St. Stephen Elementary School in Worcester

Sister Marie Simon-Pierre Normand said she knew she was in real trouble when she lost control of her hands and could no longer write legibly.

But it wasn't long before things got even worse for the French nun.

She found it increasingly difficult to walk, and driving soon became impossible.

In 2001, Sister Normand, a member of the Congregation of Little Sisters of Catholic Maternity and a nurse, was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, a degenerative disease of the nervous system.

Her medical prognosis wasn't good.

Her doctor believed that she'd spend the rest of what looked like a shortened life in a wheelchair.

Yesterday, Sister Normand — a broad smile on her face — strolled into St. Stephen's Church on lower Grafton Hill, telling the students from the nearby St. Stephen Elementary School that miracles do happen.

On June 2, 2005, she curiously discovered that she could pick up a pen and write again.

She woke the next morning and found herself cured of Parkinson's.

Sister Normand and the nuns who lived with her at the convent in the southern French city of Aix en Provence had been praying to Pope John Paul II to intercede on behalf of the stricken nun.

The pontiff, who was also afflicted with Parkinson's, had died two months earlier.

“I was cured,” Sister Normand told the students through her interpreter, Sister Marie-Judith Dupuy, the director of the Diocese of Worcester's Haitian Apostolate.

“My body felt stronger and I felt different.”

In a step leading to sainthood, Pope John Paul II was beatified on May 1, 2011, on the basis of Sister Normand's cure.

Sister Normand, attired in the white habit of her order, said she was “ecstatic” that her healing helped the pontiff's sainthood cause.

Sister Marie Thomas Fabre, the congregation's mother general, said she witnessed what Sister Normand went through.

“Her doctor thought she would die soon,” said Sister Fabre, also speaking in her native French.

Sister Fabre urged the children to pray with their families and added that their pleas would be heard.

“This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” said McBrien Nkongchu of Worcester, an eighth-grader at St. Stephen's, of the nun's visit.

Micaela Lavoie, another eighth-grader, said she could feel the late pontiff's presence in the Hamilton Street church, as Sister Normand recounted her experience.

“This is a very amazing story,” added 12-year-old Anthony Sullivan. “She had to be very strong in her faith.”

The beatification process is the first step to sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church and requires the convincing evidence of a miracle.

The miracle must be complete, sudden and permanent and it can't have a scientific or medical explanation.

Two miracles must have been performed after death before an individual may be canonized as a saint.

This week's visit by Sister Normand is her first to the United States.

She also spoke yesterday with students at St. Joseph's Elementary School in Webster.

Sister Normand, whose order runs a maternity hospital, will also speak this week at the annual Medicine, Bioethics and Spirituality Conference at the College of the Holy Cross, which is sponsored by Healthcare Professionals for Divine Mercy.

The conference opens today on the first anniversary of the late John Paul II's beatification.

Laurie Murphy, principal at St. Stephen, told the students they were fortunate to have Sister Normand visit.

She said the nun provides a better awareness of God's love.

“This was a great opportunity for the students to know that miracles are possible,” said Paula Isakson, a teacher who said she greatly admired the pope's works.