Richard A. Sokerka
The canonization of St. John Henry Newman Oct. 13 in Rome during Respect Life Month had an amazing tie-in to one of the miracles attributed to him that led to his sainthood.
Melissa Villalobos first heard about Cardinal John Henry Newman, on a show about him on EWTN “just by accident” in 2000, while she was getting ready for work. “I was really taken by it and I thought, ‘This man is so amazing,’” she told Catholic News Agency. However, it was not until a year later, when her husband brought home two holy cards of Cardinal Newman, that Villalobos’ devotion to him really began. She displayed one of the cards in the living room, the other in her bedroom.
The more Villalobos learned about Newman, the closer she felt to him. Little did she know that she would eventually come to rely on his intercession to save the life of the child in her womb and her own.
More than a decade later, Villalobos was pregnant with her fifth child but was experiencing complications. In her first trimester, she started bleeding, and she learned she had a blood clot between the placenta and the uterine wall that causes the placenta to be “partially ripped and detached from the uterine wall.” “It was a life-threatening problem because I could hemorrhage to death,” she said.
The prognosis was not good. There was no cure. Villalobos was ordered to be on bed rest. She did the best she could, but Villalobos was still caring for her other four young children in the meantime. On the morning of May 15, less than a week after being diagnosed, Villalobos woke up in a pool of blood.
Desperate, she called out to Cardinal Newman. “I said, ‘Please Cardinal Newman, make the bleeding stop.’ And just then, immediately it stopped. And I stood up and I smelled roses that filled the bathroom air.”
The smell of roses is often considered the “scent of holiness,” with many stories of saints leaving a rose scent in places where they have intervened in prayer. “And I said, ‘Oh Cardinal Newman, did you just make the bleeding stop? Thank you!’ And then there was this second burst of roses. And I knew I was cured, and I knew Gemma my daughter was OK,” she said. She had an ultrasound that afternoon, and the doctor found what Villalobos attributes to Cardinal Newman’s intercession: the bleeding had completely stopped.
“The doctor saw that there was no more bleeding and he was amazed, and he said, ‘the baby looks perfect.’ Thanks to Cardinal Newman and to God I was cured and Gemma was born completely healthy.”
The mother waited until after Gemma was born to report the miracle to Father Ignatius Harrison, postulator for Newman’s cause. Then in February, she received the news that Pope Francis signed the decree recognizing the miracle.
Villalobos and her entire family, including the “miracle baby,” Gemma, were in Rome for Newman’s canonization.
What better story for Respect Life month than a new saint’s canonization due to the birth of a “miracle baby” through his intercession?