Floribeth Mora was dying from an inoperable brain aneurysm when a photograph of Pope John Paul II in the newspaper reportedly spoke to her, curing her in a single day.
It was a miracle, the Catholic Church has declared, and it will be celebrated as such at the April 27 ceremony inducting the late pope into official sainthood,
The Associated Press reports.
"I woke up when I heard a voice that said 'get up,'" Mora said. "I was alone in my room, I only had this clipping . . . I had it in front of me and I heard a voice again that said 'get up' and I looked at his photo and saw his open arms and I heard a voice that said 'be not afraid' and I said 'Yes Lord,'" she
told Reuters last year.
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Mora, 50, has become a symbol of faith for not only her fellow Costa Ricans, but around the world, and she will be in attendance as a special guest of honor at the induction ceremony.
She gets a great many visitors to her suburban home outside of Costa Rica's capital of San Jose, and says she's dedicated to spreading the word of God. She attends as many as four masses a day at different churches that invite her, and she's packing an extra suitcase of letters addressed to the pope for the sainthood ceremony at the Vatican.
"I've got so much to do that I'm going to dedicate myself above all to telling the world the story of God's greatness and what it's done for me," she said. Asked about the excitement surrounding the ceremony, Mora said, "It's important for them to name him a saint, but for me he's already a saint. I never imagined I would become a part of all of this."
The miracle is the second qualifying miracle for John Paul II's sainthood after he asked God to cure a French nun who suffered from Parkinson's disease.
Mora's doctor confirmed to Reuters in 2013 that he never told Mora her aneurysm was fatal, and in fact only forecast a 2 percent chance it would bleed into her brain within a year of the diagnosis. He also stated, however, that only half a year later her brain scans showed no trace of ever having an aneurysm, something he said he'd never seen in his whole career.
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