Blessed Seelos
Healer and Miracle Worker
It was a miracle waiting to happen. In 1966, a medical examination revealed that Angela Boudreaux’s abdomen was swollen to proportions of a six-month pregnancy from a liver nine times normal size. A preliminary biopsy found no liver tissue at all, and exploratory surgery determined that 90 percent of the liver was simply “replaced” by a malignant tumor. A number of pathologists confirmed the findings. Angela, a wife and mother of four young children, was told she had two weeks to live.
On her way home from the New Orleans hospital, she prayed at the tomb of a saint-in-the-making, Father Francis Xavier Seelos, and was blessed with his Redemptorist mission cross. When Angela was still alive a month later, she was placed on a highly experimental chemotherapy with little chance of success; she was also warned that the toxic chemicals were painful enough to confine her to bed for a full year.
Angela suffered no side effects and made a complete recovery. A few years later, gallbladder surgery revealed only minor scars on her liver. Her surgeon was not aware of such an advanced case of liver cancer being cured so rapidly—especially considering the rudimentary chemotherapy available at that time. Her non-Catholic surgeon, a self-described man of science—whom Angela had persuaded to wear a memento of Father Seelos during her exploratory surgery—said it was the closest thing to a miracle he had ever witnessed.
Consequently, Angela felt certain of her mission: She would share with others “the marvels God has done” in her own life through Father Seelos’s intercession and further his canonization cause by ministering at the Seelos Center. Given two weeks to live by doctors in 1966, Angela and her husband had a special reason to travel to Rome in the Solemn Jubilee Year 2000. Her cure almost thirty-five years earlier was unanimously approved by the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints as the miracle needed to beatify Father Seelos. Angela’s participation in the beatification ceremony of Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos was in thanksgiving to God for a lifespan doubled and a lifelong mission fulfilled!
It was a miracle waiting to happen. In 1966, a medical examination revealed that Angela Boudreaux’s abdomen was swollen to proportions of a six-month pregnancy from a liver nine times normal size. A preliminary biopsy found no liver tissue at all, and exploratory surgery determined that 90 percent of the liver was simply “replaced” by a malignant tumor. A number of pathologists confirmed the findings. Angela, a wife and mother of four young children, was told she had two weeks to live.
On her way home from the New Orleans hospital, she prayed at the tomb of a saint-in-the-making, Father Francis Xavier Seelos, and was blessed with his Redemptorist mission cross. When Angela was still alive a month later, she was placed on a highly experimental chemotherapy with little chance of success; she was also warned that the toxic chemicals were painful enough to confine her to bed for a full year.
Angela suffered no side effects and made a complete recovery. A few years later, gallbladder surgery revealed only minor scars on her liver. Her surgeon was not aware of such an advanced case of liver cancer being cured so rapidly—especially considering the rudimentary chemotherapy available at that time. Her non-Catholic surgeon, a self-described man of science—whom Angela had persuaded to wear a memento of Father Seelos during her exploratory surgery—said it was the closest thing to a miracle he had ever witnessed.
Consequently, Angela felt certain of her mission: She would share with others “the marvels God has done” in her own life through Father Seelos’s intercession and further his canonization cause by ministering at the Seelos Center. Given two weeks to live by doctors in 1966, Angela and her husband had a special reason to travel to Rome in the Solemn Jubilee Year 2000. Her cure almost thirty-five years earlier was unanimously approved by the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints as the miracle needed to beatify Father Seelos. Angela’s participation in the beatification ceremony of Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos was in thanksgiving to God for a lifespan doubled and a lifelong mission fulfilled!
Angela boudreau is my great great aunt I was diagnosed with cancer almost 4 years ago now and two weeks ago I went and took an MRI CAT scan and bone density test and was found with no traces of cancer just scarring from the radiation and chemo hey hey my name is Melissa Downey and I am 50 years old God is good and he has saved me many a times..
ReplyDeletePlease pray for a friend who has a glioblastoma. She doesn’t want me to disclose her name, but her initials are S.A. She lives in River Ridge. Thanks so much.
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