1640 A.D.: A young Catholic farm boy in Spain, Miguel Juan Pellicer (1617 - 1647) receives one of the most amazing miraculous healings of fairly recent times! Yet it was carefully and extensively documented by his contemporaries.
Remember, this did not happen in the dark ages. It happened about 385 years ago. It happened 20 years after the Pilgrims had landed in America. You'll find a lot of surviving documentation of this event, if you look. It seems like the people of the time really wanted to gather a lot of confirmation because they understood that this event is truly beyond the pale.
Every nation has some particularly bad years, and for Spain the years around 1640 A.D. were bad times. There were gigantic political events going on involving revolts, the break away of Portugal during what the Portugese call the Restoration War, Spain suffered military reversals in other far away places, etc. Not a good time period for Spain. The great Spanish Empire was on the decline in some respects. That makes it a little less surprising that a tremendous Christian miracle took place in the middle of all that confusion and it has never received the notoriety you might expect. Yet one of the most astounding, yet most heavily and reliably documented miracles of healing EVER KNOWN did indeed occur just then. What is it?
An amputee had his leg restored. It just showed up properly attached on the remains of his stump one night after a couple of years of praying that this very sort of thing would occur...and after rubbing it nightly for years with oil from the lamps of the tabernacle of a famous nearby church. But this is no mysterious or exaggerated tale. The locals and the area Catholic Church authorities (even the King of Spain had great interest) went to great lengths to investigate and then confirm that this was no trick or fraud. They found a tremendous supply of witnesses of good character who knew the young man and had seen his amputated leg stump and then saw it had been suddenly restored, saw the missing part growing again on his leg after about 2 1/2 years of absence. By report, it even looked a little like an old deadish leg at the very first, somewhat skinnier with poor muscle development and circulation. It was identifiably his very same previously removed leg though, because of scars and marks that had long been on it before he lost it. It rapidly became healthier looking (over the course of the next few days) and then it became just about fully normal looking and good for the usual use - essentially a fully restored leg - over the next few weeks. It was slightly shorter at first, but then grew to match the other. This is a fantastically rare and unlikely miracle. It is so hard to ignore a fully reattached leg on a long time amputee who was well known and widely recognized by many.
This approximately 20 year old young man named Miguel Juan Pellicer was working on a relative's farm and he was leading a heavily loaded grain wagon down the road; it was being pulled by animals. He decided to ride on the back of one of them so that he could steer their course more easily. He apparently fell off from falling asleep, and the wagon was accidentally pulled over his lower leg, breaking his tibia, before being stopped.
It did not heal well, and he was in the young prime of his life. It seemed tragic. He was taken to a nearby hospital in Valencia. They didn't seem to be able to treat it effectively. He worried about losing the leg. He soon checked himself out of the hospital in Valencia and went on a multiple day trip to a town called Zaragosa (which then had a population of 20,000 - 30,000 it is believed) which also had a famous church called Our Lady of the Pilar which Juan, who was deeply devoted in his Catholic faith, knew of and placed a lot of stock in. Zaragoza also had skilled medical doctors at a well thought of facility called The Royal Hospital of Grace to go along with its famous church. Going there seemed to him like his best shot at keeping his leg. On the difficult trip to get there his leg had only grew worse, become gangrenous and somewhat putrified. When he finally reached the hospital they examined him and saw that there was no hope. He was informed that they would have to amputate. He was given some alcohol and other medicines with which to help bear the pain, and the amputation was done with a scalpel and saw, then cauterized with a red hot iron. His blackish, pus infused leg had been amputated "about 4 fingers below the knee" as he cried out in prayer due to the horrible pain. The harsh procedure was completed. The amputated leg was taken to the cemetery across the street by a young doctor named Juan Lorenzo Garcia and was soon buried there in a box as was the standard practice at the time. Soon enough a wooden leg was fashioned that Miguel could get around on.
He spent about 2 1/2 years in that condition as an amputee, mainly remaining there in Zaragosa where he had received the amputation. He was granted official Catholic Church permission to beg for alms at the entrance to the Lady of Pilar Chapel, and that is how he made enough money to live on during this time. He spent much of his time at the church and became a quite well known attendee and 'beggar at the door' there in that Parrish. The congregation became very familiar with Miguel and with his face. He often left the stump of his cut off limb uncovered and showing for all to see, as it apparently led them to be just a little more generous in their alms giving. So, many eyes saw his face and his leg stump over those 2 1/2 years.
Oddly, he prayed a great deal to have his leg back, which was impractical and probably seemed delusional to many. He would frequently ask the church attendants if he could have just a little bit of the oil from the church lamps near the alter, and he would rub this oil onto the stump of his leg very regularly, apparently daily, praying for the unheard of miracle of restoration of his leg, but to no effect. Yet he made it his determined habit, and was often known to ask for the holy oil, and was seen by many to rub it on the amputated stump as he naively prayed for the exceedingly unlikely return of his leg.
But then, one night when visiting his parents at the far away home town where he came from, he suddenly had his cutoff leg restored (a leg which had, as mentioned, been buried for the 2 1/2 years in a box near the hospital where it was removed, as was the custom for the amputated parts in that area of Spain at that time) It was suddenly found attached to his leg again. On that night he was sleeping at his parents home...a soldier was being quartered there also, assigned to reside at Juan's parent's home, a man who slept on what had once been Juan's bed; that was a manner of providing housing for soldiers in some instances back then...so Miguel, the amputee son, used a temporary bed to sleep on when he came visiting his parents, and during the night his mother got up but glanced and saw the surprising sight of two legs sticking out from under the blanket where she thought her son slept. She momentarily supposed that her son had switched beds with the soldier. But, she checked on the soldier and found him on his usual bed so she then went back and woke up her son. To the confusion and surprise of everyone he had his old leg, coldish and a little blue looking it is reported and with tightly curled toes, but it was attached as it ought to have been, just not yet in the peak of good condition. That leg should have been buried in a box far away. But Juan went to sleep with no leg as usual and woke up with an attached leg. Old familiar scars and marks were on it. It was not a miraculously regrown leg, it was his old, long buried leg, miraculously attached and looking pretty rough at first.
So why should anyone believe such a story? Few people did in the beginning. Naturally Juan's family and local hometown acquaintances were the first to believe. They knew Juan well, they knew he had no twin brother, they had seen him with a leg, then without a leg and they had literally seen the stump, and now they saw Juan with a leg again.
The local church was rightfully skeptical but soon they were confirming the truth of it. Once most of Calanda had verified the occurrence, that it was truly Miguel and they knew him without doubt to have been an amputee, Miguel soon traveled back to Zaragosa so that everyone that knew him well there, the doctors who amputated the leg and the church members who had given him alms for a couple of years etc., they all got a chance to see him and additionally verify the miracle. There is no record of anyone complaining of fraud out of all the many who examined this newly attached but slightly used looking lower leg. In fact, it worked out for God's glory that the leg was not a great match at the very first. It made it clear to all who looked at the leg that Juan had received his own returned leg, not a regrown one.
They dug up the buried wooden box that should have held his leg and verified it was empty. Even among these Catholic Christians this was a difficult miracle to believe! But the evidence was plentiful and seemed plain to all.
Eventually, after skeptical assigned Catholic Church officials performed a large number of interviews with the numerous qualified acquaintances of Miguel, they declared that all witnesses and associates of Juan had no doubt that the impossible had occurred. The miracle was eventually confirmed as genuine by the Arch Bishop of Zaragosa! Word spread far and wide. Once it was a certifiably verified miraculous occurrence, then Spanish King Philippe IV wanted to see it for himself, and when Miguel came to meet with him it is recorded that devout King Philippe listened to the evidence, looked for himself, and then got down on the floor and kissed the leg.
King Philip IV of Spain
The King of Spain himself took a great interest in this miracle, and people have lost their heads by making their king look foolish. It seems unlikely that his subjects would bring such a confirmed yet scarcely believable miracle account to their king unless they felt very convinced of its pedigree and authenticity.
Miguel died young at about 30 years old, but for a time, for a few years, he was one of God's most magnificent walking and talking and undeniable miracles, one that doubting and undoubting people alike could look upon with their own eyes. He was a display of splendor for the Almighty Father, His Son, and the Holy Spirit. His story ought to be more widely known. What is there that is too difficult for our Father, His Son Jesus our Savior and King, and the Holy Spirit?
You can see some of the documentation from the investigation by searching "Miracle of Calanda".