Jack Traynor and Lourdes
At 7 pm on Tuesday February 18 the Archbishop is due to celebrate Mass in our Cathedral as the official recognition that the cure of John (Jack) Traynor was above and beyond medical explanation. This cure took place on July 25 1923 during the first Liverpool Archdiocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes.
1.Why has it taken so long to make official what so many have regarded as a miraculous cure through the 101 years since it took place? The answer lies in the documentation of John’s multiple medical conditions following his injuries sustained in fighting in British forces during World War One and subsequent unsuccessful attempts by Army surgeons to mend his broken body. During the Centenary Pilgrimage to Lourdes in 2023 a number of factors came together. These began with a tidying up of the files kept in Lourdes leading to a request for Dr Moriarty, the English representative on the Lourdes Medical Bureau, to once more go through the papers relating to John’s cure. He found the missing link The Lourdes Medical Bureau recognised the cure in 1926 but sent no notification to the Archbishop of Liverpool. It was the privilege of the Archbishop to declare a miracle, but he never received the Lourdes declaration. Once that was done last Autumn it left Archbishop Malcolm free to complete the process.
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2. So what was wrong with John Traynor’s body. In 1914 shrapnel became embedded in his head In May 1915 machine gun fire severed the nerves in his right arm. He refused the recommended amputation but his arm was useless He was awarded a full disability pension In 1920 an operation to remove shrapnel from his skull left both his legs paralysed and a hole in his skull which triggered frequent epileptic fits In 1923 he was due to be admitted to Mossley Hill Hospital for Incurables when he heard about the forthcoming pilgrimage to Lourdes from Liverpool

Jack Traynor
3 Lourdes:- Priest and Doctor did not want him to go for fear that they would be unable to give him appropriate care and that he would die on the way. Which he nearly did but survived to be taken to the baths on arrival in Lourdes On July 25 1923 he felt his legs move after being bathed nine times. He ceased having epileptic fits. He was blessed by the Archbishop of Rheims carrying the Blessed Sacrament round the sick people in the Rosary Square on his way back from the baths. He ripped the bandages off his withered right arm and made the Sign of the Cross The following morning he got out of bed himself and eluding priest, doctors and helpers ran to the Grotto for Mass. Doctors Azurdia, Marley and Finn attested to his near death condition on July 24, to his return to health on July 25. There was then a scramble to get everyone onto the train for the return journey.
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4. Afterwards:- Archbishop Keating spoke and cried with joy with him on the way back to Liverpool and he walked off the train at Lime Street into the arms of Mary Ellen, his wife. The Ministry of Pensions paid his pension till the day he died whilst he went back to being a coalman which entailed filling sacks with coal, loading them onto a waggon and carrying them into his customers coal stores. Heavy and dirty work when every house had a coal fire He went back to Lourdes every year as a helper known by the French title Brancardier until the Second World War stopped pilgrimages. He died in 1943 of a hernia and is buried in Allerton Cemetery.
We can now in this Jubilee Year freely admit that his return to health was above and beyond medical explanation. He regained the use of his arm and his legs and his damaged skull no longer caused him to have epileptic fits. Let us forge ahead with our lives as Pilgrims of Hope
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With thanks to Mgr John Butchard for his assistance with this article
