Before the age of 15, Maureen Digan enjoyed a normal healthy life as an active teenager. Then suddenly, she was struck down with a slowly progressive but terminal disease called Lymphedema. It is a serious cancer which causes massive swelling of the limbs.

This painful disease is caused by a blockage which prevents fluid from draining and as the fluid builds up, the swelling continues. There’s no cure but it can be controlled with diligent care. Unfortunately, it does not respond to medication and does not go into remission.

During the next ten years, Maureen had about fifty operations and had lengthy confinements in hospital for up to a year at a time. Friends and relations suggested she should pray and put her trust in God. But Maureen could not understand why God had allowed her to get this disease in the first place and had lost her faith completely. Eventually the doctors decided that because of her deteriorating condition, it was necessary to amputate her leg. They then proceeded to set a date for the second operation of the other leg.

But, one evening while Maureen was in hospital, her husband Bob went to see a film called “Divine Mercy – No Escape”. After seeing this film on the life of Sr. Faustina, he became convinced of the healing powers through the intercession of a Saint. Bob persuaded Maureen and the doctors that she should go with him to the tomb of Sr. Faustina in Poland.

They arrived in Poland on 23rd March 1981 and Maureen went to confession for the first time since she was a young girl. At the tomb, then called the Shrine of Sr. Faustina, Maureen remembers saying in her own inimitable style, “O.K. Faustina I came a long way, now do something”.

In her heart she heard Sr. Faustina say “If you ask for my help, I will give it to you”. Maureen thought she was having a nervous breakdown. All of a sudden, the pain seemed to drain out of her body and her swollen leg which was due to be amputated shortly, went back to its normal size.

When she returned to the U.S.A. she was examined by five independent doctors who came to the conclusion that she was completely healed. They had no medical explanation for the sudden healing of this incurable disease. The accumulated evidence for this miracle was examined in consultation by five doctors appointed by the Sacred Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Having passed this test, it was examined by a team of theologians, and finally by a team of cardinals and bishops.

The cure was accepted by all as a miracle caused by Sr. Faustina’s intercession to Divine Mercy. Sr. Faustina was beatified on 18th April 1993 and canonised in April 2000 by Pope John Paul II.