Pope Francis declares 'miracle' in California following priest's 'unexplainable' recovery

A southern California priest's unexplainable recovery from an injury has been dubbed a miracle by Pope Francis.

Rev. Juan Manuel Gutierrez tore his Achilles tendon while playing basketball. At a news conference Monday at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Baldwin Park, he said emergency room doctors initially believed he simply pulled a muscle. An MRI showed he actually tore his Achilles and would need surgery, the Mercury News reported.

Gutierrez turned to the Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati for help — an Italian Catholic journalist who died of polio nearly 100 years ago at age 24 following a brief but profoundly impactful life, comforting people who are poor, suffering and hungry, according to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

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Gutierrez prayed to Frassati — and said the area around the injury began to feel warm.

"Along the days of my novena, one day I went to the chapel when nobody was there. I was praying, and I started to feel a sensation of heat around the area of my injury, and I honestly thought that maybe something was catching on fire underneath the pews," he said, according to Patch.

“From that day on I just never thought about my injury again,” Gutierrez said, according to the Mercury News. “I stopped wearing braces, I just didn’t feel I needed them.”

When he returned to the doctor, the surgeon couldn't find a tear.

"His doctors could not explain it," said Jose Gomez, archbishop of Los Angeles. "Of course, miracle is a word that gets overused in our culture and it is not well understood."

Last month, the Vatican said Frassati — who was beatified by Pope John Paul II in the 1980s — would be canonized in August 2025. Pope Francis then formally approved the second miracle and attributed it to Frassati's intervention.

"After a long time, the Vatican has finally accepted this as the miracle that will lead to the canonization of Pier Giorgio Frassati," Gutierrez said.