In the history of Christianity there are thousands, millions of miracles certified by the Church or by tradition. From the resurrections until the return of senses such as sight, walks on water, levitations, incorrupt bodies, cries of statues and voices from beyond, all this has forged the faith throughout the centuries.
Although many of these events have a scientific explanation, others are simply unintelligible. From there to what translate directly into the will of God.
However, there are facts that are directly the product of fraud. A scam. The work of scientists is to reveal them, to prevent people from falling into manipulations.
There is a historical event that occurred in Spain, during the 17th century, in which a lame man said that his leg had grown. He attributed the miracle to the Virgen del Pilar, patron saint of the nation. But over time, investigators revealed that it was all a fraud.
It is the story of miracle of the lame from Calanda.
The version of the Catholic Church about the lame man who grew a severed leg
Let’s go first with the fact that generated the limp. Miguel Juan Pellicer, Born in Calanda, Teruel, he suffered a work accident in 1637. He fell to the ground, one of the wheels of his uncle’s cart fell on his right ankle and they had to amputate part of his leg, due to the gangrene that appeared.
You they sawed the leg and they buried her in the cemetery of the Zaragoza hospital.
Pellicer spent two and a half years begging at the door of the Iglesia del Pilar, even smearing his stump with oil from the Virgin’s lamp, until one day his parents noticed that he had the leg!
It was the same one that had been amputated, with childhood scars and the injury near the right ankle, wagon wheel product.
Then it would be verified that the leg buried in the hospital cemetery was missing. The Catholic Church considered that it had been a miracle of the Virgen del Pilar, and this was recorded in the minutes.
“The fame of this portent”, writes the Catholic portal, “Resistant to all historical criticism, absolutely rigorous, it spread throughout the world and contributed not a little to spreading the existence of the Pilar de Zaragoza and Pilarist devotion, mainly in Latin American countries.”
The scientific version of the event
But, did a true miracle happen or was it all the product of fraud? Miguel Angel Sabadell, Very Interesting, explains it.
The first thing is that, reading the minutes of the process, no one saw his leg being cut off. The surgeon to whom the fact is attributed was not even during the operation.
That day A patient’s leg was amputated, but it wasn’t Pellicer. What happened to his leg? They never cut it, but it was fractured, healing over time.
No one had noticed that he still had his leg, and Pellicer was just using extra support. “The miracle happened when Circumstances forced him to sleep in his parents’ bedroom.” Sabadell recounts, “who are the ones who discover it.”
“When his mother discovers the leg, the first thing Miguel does is not be surprised, but to take his father’s hand and ask for his forgiveness.” adds. As if the scam had been discovered.
And the leg that disappeared from the cemetery? Possibly it was taken by people close to Pellicer.
The Church certifies the “miracle” to help increase the flow of pilgrims to Zaragoza, to visit the Virgen del Pilar.
And, in fact, during all that time Pellicer continued to beg. He would die a few years later, presumably from natural causes.
Antonio Gascón Ricao, on the Ser Histórico portal, publishes the report The fraud of the miracle of Calanda exposed, where he explains in great detail not only the fact, but also the exhumation of Pellicer’s remains in the 20th century… demonstrating that he had never lost his right leg.
Centuries after the event, still today many defend it as a miracle (just look at the comments on Gascón Ricao’s text). However, there is science, putting the light.