Miracle in RP makes French nun a saint

Baby "Risa" was born in 1995 with her brain halved — the corpus callosum that connected the two hemispheres did not form. Despite this condition, the couple that adopted her, Rosendo and Carmen Bondoc, decided they wanted to keep the baby.

Specialists here and abroad told the Bondoc couple that there was no cure for Risa. Another doctor told them she would never walk, talk, or see, because she had no optic nerves.

"Only a miracle would make her function normally," doctors in Houston, Texas told Risa’s parents.

Unbeknownst to many, Risa’s parents, devout Catholics, sought the intercession of a French nun who was beatified in 1975 but was still on the road to full sainthood. From Houston, the Bondocs flew to Paris and put Risa on top of the tomb of Mother Marie Eugenie Milleret, r.a., and prayed for Risa’s cure. Thus began a series of novenas to Marie Eugenie.

Today, Risa is a student at the Assumption Convent. She has not undergone surgery. Her brain remains halved, but she not only walks, talks and sees — she has "the intellectual aptitude that corresponds to her age, as well as a formidable disposition to fulfill the required task." She also plays the piano. She is hailed as "a living miracle."

Risa’s transformation was thoroughly studied by the Extraordinary Theological Commission in Rome. In December 2005, Pope Benedict XVI recognized the validity of the miracle that happened to the Filipino child. On June 3 this year, Mother Eugenie, who founded the Religious of the Assumption, will be canonized by the Pope in Rome.

The Assumption has schools in 34 countries, but it was the Philippines that brought to the fore a miracle that was instrumental in the French nun’s canonization.

The Assumption Convent in the Philippines, since 1892, has produced some 50,000 graduates, including President Arroyo. Mother Eugenie, though born in Metz, France halfway across the globe, has thus made an impact on the lives of many Filipinos.

Sr. Maria Josefina Matias, r.a. Provincial Superior, said the Assumption congregation is focused on education "to educate in order to help people transform their way of thinking and acting according to Gospel values."

Lourdes Herrera, president of the Assumption Alumnae Association, says President Arroyo has been invited to lead the alumnae who will attend Mother Marie Eugenie’s canonization.