The first miracle officially recognized by Pope Leo XIV is American. The Vatican announced that a newborn’s survival in a Rhode Island hospital, attributed to the prayers of a doctor devoted to a 19th-century Spanish priest, meets the criteria for a miracle under Church law.
According to findings from the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, the event took place in 2007 at Memorial Hospital in Pawtucket, where an emergency cesarean section was performed to deliver a premature baby named Tyquan. The infant was reportedly born without a detectable pulse and suffered from severe oxygen deprivation.
Doctors did not expect him to survive. After more than an hour in surgery with no sign of improvement, the attending surgeon turned to prayer, specifically, to Father Salvador Valera Parra, a priest from southern Spain who died in 1889 and was known for ministering to cholera patients.
According to the Diocese of Almeria, just minutes after the doctor’s prayer, the baby’s heart began beating again, strong and stable, without any medical intervention.
Physicians at the time warned that Tyquan had likely suffered permanent brain damage due to the prolonged lack of oxygen. Yet, against all expectations, the child recovered fully. He grew up healthy and without neurological issues, the Vatican said.
The incident was formally recognized as a miracle in a document signed by Pope Leo XIV on June 20. In the same decree, the Pope also named 174 new martyrs and opened the process of beatification for Father Valera Parra, who was born in the village of Huércal-Overa in 1816 and dedicated his priesthood to caring for the sick and poor.
