Maria Esperanza's Gift of Healing

          Hundreds of individuals who suffered from physical, psychological, and spiritual maladies claim to have been healed through prayers or the laying on of hands by Maria Esperanza.  In some cases, the healing was immediate, in others it occurred over time.  On other occasions she uttered a “word” of knowledge,” in which she simply told the sick person or his loved ones without fanfare that he would be healed, often describing the details of the recovery.  She would also diagnose the illness of a complete stranger and explain the precise medical treatment needed for a cure.
          A classic example of this gift operating in the life of Maria Esperanza is the healing of her own granddaughter, Maria Esperanza Chiquinquira Bianchini, affectionately called “La Tita” by her family.  La Tita, the daughter of the Servant of God’s only son, Giovanni, and his wife, Anabella, was born a healthy normal child on November 18, 1991.  She was three years old when she was traveling with her parents in the United States. 
          Giovanni, his wife and their four children were in Miami at the end of a long trip to several places in the United States.  On September 4, 1994, they arrived at their hotel in Miami at 9:00 PM.  They went to their room and Anabella bathed La Tita, who complained that she was very cold, so her mother dried her quickly.  When Anabella laid her daughter down on the bed, the toddler’s head suddenly twisted rigidly to the right; her little body stiffened, and her eyes rolled back in her head.  Anabella thought her child had just had an epileptic attack.  She and Giovanni immediately called the front desk for help.  They ran to the lobby of the hotel with their baby when the paramedics arrived who provided emergency care.  An ambulance took the girl and her parents to the Jackson Memorial Hospital.  They were informed that La Tita had suffered a forty-five minute convulsion, and that she was in a coma.  They had to expect the worst in view of the length of time the convulsion had lasted.
          Giovanni and his wife felt very scared and alone.  He called his mother in Venezuela to request her spiritual aid.  Relatives in Caracas informed them that Maria Esperanza was returning from a conference in Cleveland.  As soon as she arrived home, Giovanni and Anabella were able to speak with her.  The Servant of God told them, “Children, have faith that my Blessed Mother, Our Lady Mary Reconciler of All Peoples, will work a complete healing in my little girl.”  They were heartbroken by what had just happened, but they were confident that their mother’s prayers would reach heaven.
          The next day, La Tita’s condition did not improve.  She was still in a coma.  The doctors carried out endless exams without obtaining any clear results.  Giovanni called Venezuela again and his mother told him that he had to pray very much because she could see that La Tita was in a very precarious state.  She also said that the night before she had received through an interior inspiration a particular set of prayers to be prayed for the little girl called the Chaplet of Jesus Our Healer.
          That same night, the Servant of God began to pray this Chaplet for La Tita’s recovery, together with the members of the Betania Foundation that were in her house in Caracas.  Everyone remained in prayer with her until dawn.  Day after day passed with everyone praying the Chaplet of Jesus Our Healer for the child.  Meanwhile, the little child did not respond to the treatment.  She needed urgent blood transfusions, but the doctors were afraid to administer the blood because they claimed not to know how to treat tropical diseases, which she might have contracted in Venezuela.  They considered it a grave risk to take this step.  Giovanni and Anabella strongly debated with them over what to do for their daughter.
          Her fever was raging and could not be controlled with medication.  The only thing that helped was to undress the toddler, soak her in water, and set her in front of a fan in order to bring down her temperature.  The comatose child was being sustained by a respirator.  When the technicians removed her from the machine to see if she could breathe on her own, she did not respond.  The news from the doctors was terrifying, but Maria Esperanza continued to encourage her son and daughter-in-law, telling them that she would be healed, and that our Blessed Mother would cure her.  The couple would repeat these words to themselves, over and over, clinging to them and the hope they conveyed.  Still, the dire situation produced unbearable anxiety for them.
          Days elapsed and in another telephone conversation, the Servant of God told Anabella, “Calm down, daughter, my little girl will soon wake up and she will be completely cured.” On the seventh day, Giovanni and Anabella arrived at the hospital and were told that La Tita had opened her eyes.  This was an indication that she was coming out of the coma.  The respirator was turned off at certain intervals to measure her response and the little girl started to make an effort to breathe by herself.  At the same time, a new medical report confirmed that she had suffered damage at the base of her brain.  Now it was necessary to wait to see how much harm the convulsion had caused her.  The experts repeatedly said that the child most certainly would remain in a vegetative state because of the severity and length of her convulsion.  At the very least, she would lose her speech, her sphincter control and would probably be mentally handicapped.       
          On the eighth day, when the parents entered the child’s room, they were astounded to see their little girl standing up in her cradle.  She spoke to them and hugged them.  Giovanni and Anabella wept as they saw their daughter healthy, smiling, and eating.  The neurologist could not believe it when she came for her morning visit.  The doctor told the parents, “I cannot understand such a recovery!”  The following day La Tita was released from the hospital, but of course she was kept under close observation.  For a month and a half the Bianchinis remained in Miami.  The doctors insisted that they not return to Venezuela because they fully anticipated a relapse.  After many appointments, neurological exams, and other kinds of tests, La Tita showed no damage or abnormality whatsoever.  The exams revealed no lesion on the brain at all.  It was as if she never had a forty-five minute convulsion.
          Upon returning to Venezuela, La Tita was taken to a neurologist to continue her medical observation.  Her doctor in Caracas also conducted a number of exams and everything proved negative.  After many visits he told the parents to return in five years.  When she was eight years old the exams were repeated.  Again, they yielded the same negative results.  Today La Tita has excellent health and outstanding grades at the university.  She is a beautiful and cheerful young woman who gives silent testimony to her grandmother’s gift of healing. 

             Recalling the event, in his life, Giovanni said,

          In the hospital in Miami, the Jackson Memorial Hospital, they told us that [my daughter] was in a coma, possibly with irreversible and catastrophic consequences in her mental and motor skills. 
          We spent six days there seeking the comforting words of my mother, Maria Esperanza, and her prayers.  On the seventh day a miraculous recovery of our daughter took place.  She spoke to us, she remembered her siblings and her toys, and this was after we had been informed that neurological examination revealed damage to the base of her cerebellum.  On the contrary, my mother’s prayers had been received by the merciful love of the Virgin Mother, Reconciler of All Peoples, and the Lord manifested himself with this huge miracle. 
          As time elapsed, the young girl never repeated a trace of this episode, which was further proof of the love that our mother had for her family and neighbor. 

This excerpt is from Father Timothy Byerley’s book Maria Esperanza and the Grace of Betania and is available for purchase in the Betania II Gift Shop or online.