Church to Investigate Cancer Cure as Possible Miracle

ANNAPOLIS Md. (WUSA) The Archdiocese of Baltimore plans to investigate whether an Annapolis woman's 2005 cure from cancer was a miracle, a possible step toward sainthood for a 19th century priest.

The inquiry marks only the fifth such investigation in the Archdiocese's history.

Heibel prayed to the Blessed Francis X. Seelos, a priest who served at St. Mary's Church in Annapolis during the Civil War. Seelos died in 1867 while ministering to yellow fever victims in New Orleans.

But Heibel says the Seelos is still very much on duty to recieve prayers.

"I have a lot of faith," she said Wednesday from her home in Annapolis. "Either way if you live or die, if you follow the path of faith you'll make out."

Heibel was treated for an aggressive form of cancer of the esophagus in 2003. By 2005 the cancer had invaded both lungs, her back and stomach.

"Basically, they sent me home to die," she said.

That's when Heibel enlisted the help of pastors at St. Mary's Church in Annapolis to conduct a weeks-long series of organized prayers called a novena.

Prayers were directed to Seelos.

Within 4 weeks, a stunned doctor called to tell Heibel all her tumors had mysteriously disappeared. She has remained cancer-free since.

"We can't say its a miracle until the Pope says its a miracle," Heibel says. But she believes there is no other explanation.

At age 71, Heibel wears a relic of Seelos' bone in a locket around her neck. St. Mary's has installed a bronze statue of the priest in the parish garden to remember him.

The experience has not turned Heibel away from modern medicine. She continues to see doctors and take medications saying, those too are "gifts from God."