Floribeth Mora Díaz: Inoperable Brain Aneurysm Disappears After John Paul II Beatification

Floribeth Mora Díaz, a lawyer from San José, Costa Rica, was hospitalized in April 2011 with severe headaches. Physicians at Hospital La Católica diagnosed a large cerebral aneurysm in an inoperable location and told her family she had perhaps one month to live. On May 1, 2011, bedridden and weak, she watched the Vatican's broadcast of John Paul II's beatification.

She later described hearing a voice saying "Levántate, no tengas miedo" ("Get up, do not be afraid"). She rose from bed, felt entirely well, and subsequent imaging showed no trace of the aneurysm. Her Costa Rican physicians had no explanation.

The Vatican's investigation was notably rigorous: the Congregation for the Causes of Saints brought her secretly to Rome, admitted her to a hospital, conducted fresh neurological imaging, and compared it against pre-cure scans. The multi-specialist panel unanimously concluded the resolution was scientifically inexplicable. Pope Francis recognized the miracle on July 5, 2013, and John Paul II was canonized on April 27, 2014.

Fair skeptical notes: spontaneous aneurysm resolution — thrombosis without rupture — occurs in a small percentage of cases, and the original and follow-up imaging remain outside public scientific review. Still, the independent Rome re-examination marks this as one of the better-documented Vatican miracle investigations.