The same maternal dedication that characterized Dona Lucilia throughout her life shines today in her interventions for those who devoutly ask for her help. What follows is but a small sampling of the vast “battlefield” that this mother has traversed to help people in distress.
A serious illness at a young age
With a heart full of joy and gratitude, Thalita Sato, who lives in São Paulo, recounts a favour she received through the intercession of Dona Lucilia:
“My daughter Luisa was born healthy on October 19, 2015. Until she was one year old, she had not had so much as a fever. However, at the age of one year and ten months, after the onset of a fever, she had her first seizure.”
Taken to hospital without delay, the little girl underwent various tests and was found to have viral meningitis. However, this was only the beginning of a long search for a definitive diagnosis, which took four years to obtain, as her mother recounts:
The maternal dedication that characterized Dona Lucilia throughout her life shines today in her interventions for those who ask for her help
“Initially, every five weeks Luisa had fevers for no apparent reason. The interval between fevers got shorter and the symptoms became worse. In addition to these unexplained fevers, she developed allergies to medications, dyes, some foods and all preservatives and stabilizers. She could not eat out or even use kitchen utensils other than ours.
“My daughter’s condition became worse and worse. The seizures were constant and the fear of not knowing if she would wake up the next day haunted us. Luisa was constantly being admitted to intensive care because the doctors had no idea what was wrong with her. Her little heart was telling us that something was not right. She had tachycardia during a fever and, while she was convulsing, her heartbeat fluctuated a lot: for example, from two hundred and twenty beats per minute to fifty.”
Luisa and her parents suffered greatly from the progression of a disease for which they could not get a definitive diagnosis. Shortly before her third birthday, the girl was on the verge of death due to a severe allergic reaction to the medicine she had been given.
“This is my path to sanctity”
However, the long years of suffering were an opportunity for grace for Thalita who, “like the prodigal son, returned to the Father’s house.” Luisa was already four years old when the doctors diagnosed her with absence epilepsy.
“That day,” says her mother, “she saw me sad and asked why. I told her that her test results were not very good and that is why I was a little sad. Her reply was: ‘Mom, don’t you pray every day: Thy will be done? This is the will of our Father in Heaven and it is my path to sanctity.’ I didn’t know what a path to sanctity was; I didn’t know how she was taught this, because we were always together, I mean always. I would never leave her alone, because she could have a seizure at any moment. Fortunately, Luisa, even at such a young age, showed us how indestructible her faith and her love for God were.”
During another admission to the ICU, the doctor diagnosed auto-inflammatory syndrome and referred the patient to a specialist. He began treatment with corticosteroids:
“Every three weeks she took around sixty milligrams of the drug, which made her immunosuppressed. Her prognosis was not good; the doctor who was treating her told me that they did not know how long she would respond to the corticosteroid treatment.”
“If you believe in miracles…”
From this gloomy outlook, a ray of hope finally shone through: “In November 2021, we met the Heralds of the Gospel. A priest from this association promptly offered his assistance for my family’s spiritual needs, promised to pray for Luisa’s healing and told me about the devotion to Dona Lucilia. We then began to pray, asking her to take charge of Luisa’s whole life and obtain her healing:
“Every night, when Luisa fell asleep, I would go to her room, say a rosary of aspiration prayers to Dona Lucilia and entrust my little girl to her care. I would ask her that if she could not be cured, she would be helped to face all the prognoses that the syndrome entailed and that her faith and confidence would never be shaken.”
During one of her many medical consultations, Thalita asked the doctor if there was hope that her daughter would at least get better over time, and received this less-than-encouraging reply: “If you believe in miracles, she might get better.”
May many families get to know Dona Lucilia!
She then decided, together with the priest, to set “goals” for little Luisa’s fever intervals; in other words, they asked that, through Dona Lucilia’s intercession, Luisa would not have any symptoms of the illness over a certain period of time.
“If my child is healthy today, it is thanks to the intercession of Dona Lucilia. May many other families come to know of her care!”
Thalita says: “The first time period was for her to stay well, without any symptoms, for eleven weeks. Incredibly, Luísa did not have any symptoms during that time. We then moved on to the second goal, that of twenty-two weeks, but after only nine weeks Luisa had the symptoms of the syndrome, on July 31. The priest did not let me lose faith and confidence. We intensified our prayers and Luisa never showed any more symptoms of the dreaded disease.”
Grateful and deeply attached to her benefactress, Thalita ends her account with this expressive testimony:
“Dona Lucilia has taken care of my family and continues to do so with all the maternal love we so desperately need. My Luisa’s life taught me not only to have true love for God’s designs, but also to always trust and never lose heart. And if my child is healthy today, it is thanks to Dona Lucilia’s intercession and the tireless confidence of the Herald priest who guided us. May Our Lady grant that many families come to know Dona Lucilia’s care!”
The affliction of a mother in search of her son
Maria de Lourdes Cunha lives in Mairiporã, SP, is a steady parishioner at one of the chapels run by the Heralds of the Gospel in the region and a great devotee of Dona Lucilia. Having heard many stories of graces obtained through her, she felt encouraged to send us the account of a favour she received through the intercession of this very helpful mother, even though it happened a few years ago.
She tells us that her son Igor, who was sixteen at the time, asked her permission to go with some friends to a concert in downtown São Paulo. He promised to be back before nightfall. As her son was always faithful to his word, Lourdes was extremely concerned when night came and he did not turn up. She made numerous attempts to contact him by cell phone, all to no avail.
Finally, at around ten o’clock at night, one of the friends who had gone out with him answered the call. “Where’s Igor?” she asked. And she got the worrying reply that her son had become ill and had remained at the concert venue. Filled with anguish, Lourdes wanted to know what had happened, but her son’s so-called friend hung up on her. “I called again and he did not answer. I became desperate.”
She decided to turn for help to one of her sisters, who offered to go with her husband to look for the boy in the city of São Paulo. However, it was already midnight when they arrived at the concert venue and they were only able to confirm that it had ended and the place was already closed. They looked for Igor in the nearest emergency room, but he was not there. With great sorrow, they told Lourdes that they had not found her son and that she should report his disappearance to the police.
In moments of anguish, recourse to prayer
Imagine a mother’s distress in such circumstances! What did Lourdes do? She says: “I took my rosary, went to Igor’s room, knelt at his bed and began to ask Dona Lucilia for help. I prayed the Rosary and asked that nothing would happen to him, that she would watch over him wherever he was. As I prayed, I began to calm down. When my sister arrived back at her house at about half past two in the morning, she called me and said: ‘Igor is here at my house!’”
How Dona Lucilia’s heart must have ached to see Lourdes’ torment! Her help, as a very good mother, could not have delayed. But what had actually happened?
“Do not be afraid, I am here with you”
The next day, Lourdes questioned her son about the details of the incident. He did not know what had happened either. His companions had probably given him a drink that had made him ill, and he had sat down in a corner to try to recover from the discomfort he was feeling, and his “friends” had left him there.
Before he lost consciousness, Igor saw a lady coming towards him to help him and she sweetly said: “Igor, do not be afraid, I am here with you.” And holding his hands, she said: “Don’t be afraid, you will be fine!”
Terribly distressed at the disappearance of her son, Lourdes wasted no time: “I knelt at his bed and began to ask Dona Lucilia for help”
Who was this benevolent lady? Igor did not know. But Lourdes had no doubt: since she herself could not go to her son’s aid, Dona Lucilia had taken it upon herself to help him in that painful situation.
Lourdes says that after that, “my son did not see anything anymore.” It seems that someone passed by and took him to the emergency room, where he was given the appropriate treatment and recovered.
Grateful, Lourdes recalls the event with emotion, because Dona Lucilia, who in eternity continues to be an excellent mother, promptly answered her prayers and took care of her son.
Unexpected temperamental change
Esther Seminario wrote to us from Sullana, Peru, recounting two episodes of Dona Lucilia’s prompt intervention in geting her out of difficult situations.
Having travelled to another city to book a medical procedure, Esther arrived at the hospital at around eight o’clock in the morning and was faced with an unexpected obstacle: “The person in charge of booking the appointment was, for no apparent reason, extremely irritated and very unpleasant to deal with. Some patients, because they had been waiting so long, became exasperated and started to protest. I was the first in the queue. However, inexplicably, rather than attending me – perhaps thinking that I had instigated the protest – she told me categorically that I should wait until the end because she needed to give me many instructions. She added that she would only be able to see me at 12:30.”
But Esther had a return ticket to her city at that time. She had only one solution: to pray.
“In this situation, I asked myself: what should I do? My God, help me, enlighten me! Dona Lucilia immediately came to mind. I had a photograph of her in my coat pocket; I took it and began to pray the irresistible novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and to ask for Dona Lucilia’s intercession. What a surprise! I had not even finished praying the novena when, all of a sudden, the employee came back smiling and invited me to come in and booked an appointment for my medical procedure. This person had gone from extreme irritability to total serenity and incredible kindness. I have no doubt that Dona Lucilia was at work there.”
Before leaving the hospital, Esther paid a quick visit to the chapel, where a gentleman came in weeping disconsolately and, kneeling down, prayed for a sick relative. Moved by his distress, she gave him the picture of Dona Lucilia as a gift, with a brief explanation of how beneficial it was to turn to her.
The story continues: “He thanked me and said he would ask for Lucilia’s intercession with all his might. I left feeling very comforted for having given the picture of Dona Lucilia to someone in need, but at the same time sad because I had lost it. I thought I did not have another one with me, but to my surprise I found one in my handbag. So I felt safe having it with me on my return trip.”
A new difficulty, another intervention
Esther could not have imagined how much she would need her protector’s help on the journey home! She recounts:
“When I was taking the bus back to my town, the vehicle was intercepted by three motorbikes, with two men on each. They were carrying firearms and, as the bus did not stop, they started throwing stones and then they blocked the road with the motorbikes and the bus was forced to stop. Panic and despair gripped the passengers, many of whom were children: ‘It’s a robbery! Hide your money and throw your mobile phone on the floor,’ shouted a warier passenger.
When she saw that the armed men were about to break into the bus she was on, Esther exclaimed loudly: “Dona Lucilia, help us!”
“In that moment of desperation, I turned to Dona Lucilia again. I took the picture and, with it in my hand, said aloud: ‘Dona Lucilia, our mother, help us!’ I repeated this aspiration several times and calmed down. I called my sisters – who happened to be in the city and are also devotees of Dona Lucilia – to contact the police. And several other passengers did the same.
“Finally, the police intervened and captured the criminals. The scare was tremendous, but no passengers suffered any physical harm or theft. Dona Lucilia’s powerful intervention allowed us to reach our destination safe and sound.
“I would like to conclude by saying that my husband, who witnessed the events I have just recounted, is now also a devotee of Dona Lucilia and turns to her maternal intercession in every situation of need.” ◊
