A prayer addressed to Brother Giovanni changed our lives

My testimony concerns events that occurred in October 2024, which have, in one way or another, changed the lives of my wife and me. I have been married to my wife for about twenty years; she is 56 years old and suffers from severe multiple sclerosis. 

On Thursday, October 10, 2024, she had to undergo emergency hospitalization for what was later diagnosed as “significant right-sided basal pneumonia with pleural effusion,” a degeneration of a simple cold, which was soon accompanied by increasingly high fever and bronchial secretions that were difficult to expel. She was admitted to hospital in the afternoon of that day and on the morning of the following day, Friday the 11th, she was transferred from the Emergency Room to the General Medicine department and remained there for ten days, on oxygen 24 hours a day, subjected to constant monitoring and various tests, which inevitably left on her body the signs of a bloody fight against a mortal danger. 

I return to Thursday, October 10. That morning he had gone to work. I am a cataloger of book collections and in October 2024 I was working at the Library of the Guanellian Studies Center. That day I received as a gift from the head of the Library a booklet that talks about the life of a religious man, the servant of God Giovanni Vaccari.  On the evening of that same Thursday, when my wife had recently been hospitalized, to distract myself a little I felt a strong need to pick up the book, the title of which I read: “A man sent by God. Brother Giovanni Vaccari (1913-1971)”, written by a Guanellian, Andrés Garcia Velasco. 

Since then, for ten days (the time my wife was hospitalized), I read a piece of it every evening. I read the last pages on the evening of Sunday, October 20, the day before my wife was scheduled to be discharged, as she continued to be in a serious and precarious condition.  I remember well that the story was cheering me up. When I reached the last page, I recited the prayer that is found at the end of the book. I was in a discouraged state of mind, but that Sunday evening, after reading the last pages of the book and saying the final prayer, I found relief and went to rest, very cheered up. 

On the morning of Monday, October 21, the day of my wife's discharge from the hospital, I resolutely faced the harsh reality, since since Friday, October 11, when she had been transferred to the General Medicine department, her conditions had been worsening. The doctors on the night shift even raised the possibility of a transfer to Intensive Care, if the values ​​had worsened. 

So, that morning of Monday, October 21, the pulmonologist who treated my wife had in his hand the letter of discharge with the diagnosis: "acute respiratory failure with  pneumonia in a patient with multiple sclerosis following rhinovirus infection… is discharged in sufficient general clinical conditions, alert and oriented. At home the patient will have to continue to receive oxygen 24 hours a day and follow a therapy with an advanced technology device, which will favor the release of stagnant catarrh in the lungs». 

While he is about to deliver the letter to me, the doctor also receives the results of the last analysis performed a few minutes before: the situation has changed significantly and the lung problem has suddenly and inexplicably resolved itself and my wife  can leave the hospital by car. The doctors cannot explain such a positive and sudden change. And now, since the day of discharge, the degree of saturation has progressively risen, until it has consolidated at the optimal level, which has convinced the doctor to stop the intake of oxygen from the second tank.

For my part, I always keep in my memory the comfort I received from reading the life of the servant of God Giovanni Vaccari and from the prayer I recited on the evening of Sunday, October 20. I am morally convinced that this prayer obtained the great improvement in my wife's breathing and the possibility of a return to our home in fairly good conditions. 

Letter signed 

In gratitude for a spiritual grace from Brother Giovanni Vaccari

On October 10, 2024, the priests of the parish of Aguilar de Campoo, who serve as chaplains in this strictly cloistered Monastery of Santa Clara, informed us that, due to the many parish and extra-parish commitments they must attend to, they are unable to celebrate Holy Mass in our monastic church on Thursdays. For us, contemplative nuns, being without Mass is like being without the vital strength of the day. Faced with the concrete possibility of being deprived of this grace, we turned to God through the intercession of our brother Giovanni Vaccari, whom some of us had known personally and considered very close to God and of great sanctity. We immediately began to recite the prayer to Brother Giovanni daily in community. Over the course of three weeks we were informed that a priest from another diocese, at the request of lay people connected to the Monastery, offered to celebrate Holy Mass on Thursdays. With joy and gratitude I share this grace of Brother Giovanni, who so quickly granted us his help.

Sister Carmen Ma Garcia
Rodriguez,  Abbess

Monastery of Santa Clara in Aguilar de Campoo, Palencia (España)
as of November 24, 2024.