At a Pawtucket hospital back in January 2007, Dr. Juan Sánchez-Esteban had all but given up hope of saving a baby boy he had just delivered by Caesarian section.
Tyquan Hall was stillborn. No heartbeat, no brain activity, despite Dr. Sánchez-Esteban’s best efforts to revive him.
As the Brown-affiliated physician braced himself to deliver heartbreaking news to the boy’s family, he tried one last thing. He said a prayer to a venerable priest from his hometown in Spain, Father Salvador Valera Parro, who lived and died during the 19th century.
“Father Valera, I have done everything possible,” the doctor said. “Now it’s your turn.”
As he walked down the hallway to speak with the boy’s family, a nurse called him back. Miraculously, Tyquan’s heart had started, and he was breathing on his own.
“It’s truly a miracle,” said Father Timothy Reilly, chancellor of the Diocese of Providence.
But in order to officially recognize the miracle, the Vatican needed to conduct a thorough investigation.
Under Catholic dogma, God grants miracles posthumously. The living pray for the intercession of someone holy who is dead, and if those prayers are answered it is taken as proof that the holy person is indeed with God.
One proven miracle leads to beatification. With two, the pope declares a new saint.
The Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints meticulously investigates miracles and ultimately makes recommendations to the pope. It’s not unlike a trial. A Postulator, typically a priest or canon lawyer, advocates for the case. A Devil’s Advocate argues against.
In 2014, the Vatican sent a team of doctors, priests, and canon lawyers to Providence to conduct that investigation. Fr. Reilly represented the local diocese on the panel.
“We talked with the medical staff, we talked with Dr. Esteban, and we compiled all the information to send back to Rome,” he said.
“You know that scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark, the last scene where they are putting that box in the big warehouse?” he said. “That’s something we felt about the work we had done.”
For 14 long years, they heard nothing further about the case. Then last month Pope Leo XIV announced he had accepted the miracle, the first one declared during his papacy.
“It was an amazing day,” said Reilly, who was on a retreat when the news broke. “I thought wow, I was part of something truly epic.”
Father Reilly also takes comfort from the idea that God is looking out for Rhode Island.
For him, the key takeaway is the power of prayer.
“Miracles don’t just happen on their own,” he said. “If you want to win the Lotto bucks or the Powerball, you gotta got to buy a ticket.”
