The miraculous healing that paved the way for Pier Giorgio’s canonization

By Andrew Rabel

Vatican City, September 7,2025. in St. Peter’s Square, Leo XIV greets Fr. Juan Gutierrez, assistant pastor at St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church in Los Angeles. He received a miraculous healing through the intercession of Pier Giorgio Frassati, whose canonization he was there to witness.

Fr. Juan Gutierrez, 38, is assistant pastor at St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church in Los Angeles. He was in Rome earlier this month to attend the joint canonization of Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati. An immigrant from Mexico, he received a miraculous healing through the intercession of Frassati, which was approved by Pope Francis on November 25, 2024 — and accepted as part of the canonization process.

ITV correspondent Andrew Rabel, also in Rome for the canonizations, was able to interview Fr. Gutierrez, who described in depth the circumstances of the miracle.

The first question I want to ask is, what made you decide to become a Catholic priest? 

Fr. Juan Gutierrez: It was a journey of discernment and even fighting with the Lord, because I personally did not want to be a priest. But through my years of preparation at the seminary, with the help of my formators, with prayer, with working with the people of God as a seminarian, the Lord allowed me to discover that I was born to be a priest.

How did your injury come about? 

Well, it was the evening of September 25, 2017, when I was playing basketball at a gym near my seminary in Camarillo, California. I was running, and I felt as if someone had tripped me from behind, hitting my right ankle — though when I turned around, nobody was there. But I had heard the sound of a “pop” when it happened.

Immediately after, I couldn’t walk normally. The following day at a nearby emergency room, x-rays revealed there were no broken bones; they sent me home with painkillers for a muscle strain.

After two weeks, I was not showing signs of improvement. It was October 13 that I called my primary care physician, and eventually an MRI on October 31 showed that I had actually torn my Achilles tendon.

Surgery was recommended to repair the tendon. “You’re still a young man,” my doctor said. (I was 31 at the time.) The whole process — from surgery, to 10 or 14 days of rest, to cast removal and then 6-8 months of physiotherapy, to complete recovery — takes about a year.

How did this miracle take place? And what made you invoke, specifically, Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati? 

After receiving the surgery recommendation, I started to research Achilles tendon surgeries, and that started to worry me — the long recovery process, and the high rate of infection due to low blood supply to the tendon.

So the following day was November 1: in the Catholic Church, the solemnity of All Saints. I went to Mass, and after Mass I stayed behind to pray. While I was praying, I began to think that maybe I should do a novena to ask for God’s help for my injury. Oftentimes, when I do novenas, I invite a saint to come and pray with me. I received an inspiration to my heart: why don’t you make it to Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati?

It was something so simple, so casual, but I thought it was a good idea. So I did. It’s as simple as that. I prayed for a few days, a prayer that I created myself — “Lord, through the intercession of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, I ask you to help me with my injury.”

I asked for help with my injury; I didn’t ask for healing. So I prayed every day, and after this prayer, I would ‘do a rosary, and that was it.

But one day, I went to the chapel by myself, nobody was there. And when I was kneeling down, praying, I started to feel, in the area of my feet, a sensation of heat, which I thought was maybe a fire that had begun in one of the electrical outlets near where I was kneeling. I was concerned that the fire would gain momentum with all the books and the wood of the pews, but I couldn’t find the fire, I couldn’t smell anything burning.

Eventually, I realized that the source of the heat was the area of my injury. And I myself began to remember testimonies I’d heard about, that when someone was healed, they began to feel a sensation of heat. So I said, “Lord, I don’t think you’re healing me right now, not because you don’t have the power, but because I don’t think I have the faith for something like this.” And I felt unworthy, and I was moved to tears.

Eventually I finished my prayer, and went on with my normal day. By this point, I had been wearing a brace on my ankle. But after this prayer in the chapel, I completely forgot about my injury. I didn’t wear the brace anymore. But I still kept an already scheduled appointment with the surgeon who was to do the surgery.

What happened at that conference with the surgeon? 

In the days preceding the canonization, the body of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati was exposed in the Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva for the veneration of the faithful.

Well, I finished my novena with Pier Giorgio November 9, and I went to see the surgeon about six days later. When the surgeon came into the room, he started to show me the images of my MRI, explaining “This is how we know that you have a torn Achilles, because there is this gap, like a triangle, that is being filled with blood.”

“Now I’m going to check you myself,” he said. He told me that he was going to squeeze my calf muscles — apologizing for the pain it would cause — and if my foot moved, that meant the tendon was connected. If it didn’t move, that meant the tendon was not connected. This test is, to my knowledge, about 70% accurate in detecting a torn Achilles.

So I felt him press my calf, and I heard him just make a noise: “Hmm.” And that intrigued me. But then he went ahead and began to palpate the area, and asked, “Do you feel any pain?” And I told him, “No, not pain, just a little soreness.”

Then he said, “Now I will push a lot harder, and again, I apologize for any pain, but I need to make sure.” So he started to push a lot harder. And he asked me, “Do you feel any pain?” And I told him, “No. I feel exactly the same.”

And I could see him staring at the floor, puzzled, not saying anything. So I asked him, “Doctor, is everything okay?” And he just looked at me and said, “I don’t think we need to put you through the surgery anymore,” which was surprising for me. So I asked him, “How come?” And he told me, “Well, when I examine you, I am supposed to feel the hole, the tear, the gap of the tendon, and I cannot find it.”

I myself had been able to feel the gap before, so I knew what he was looking for. So the surgeon, knowing that I was a seminarian, looked at me and said, “You must have somebody up there looking after you.” And when he said that, I felt chills just running all over my body. I asked him, “Doctor, then is it normal for these injuries to close on their own?” And he told me “No. What is more common, especially with injuries as old as yours, almost two months old, is that they will gap. They will open even more.”

I said, “Well, maybe the MRI was wrong, and I didn’t really have a torn Achilles.”

And he chuckled a little bit and said, “No. This is the most advanced piece of technology we have! So as of October 31, you had a torn Achilles, but today I cannot find it.” I asked him to give me that in writing, and he did.

So I went on with my day, being overjoyed in my heart, knowing that this was a miracle from God. I used to call it my “little miracle,” because it’s not a tumor that has disappeared, or a lost limb that grew back. I knew this was a simple miracle, but a miracle nonetheless — which I wanted to keep private, not to call attention to myself.

What made church authorities in Los Angeles get involved and eventually reach out to the Vatican? 

It wasn’t until 2020 that Monsignor Robert Sarno, who had just retired from decades in the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, came to teach a class at the seminary on how to begin the cause of canonization at the diocesan level.

By the providence of God, I ended up taking the class only as a favor to a friend. And I began to realize that maybe what happened to me covered all the requirements that the Vatican looks for in proving a miracle. Though reluctant, I prayed to the Lord that if he wanted me to share my experience with Monsignor Sarno, I would do so. Eventually, I did. That same day, he reached out to the Vatican, here in Rome.

God put the right people in the right places. So Monsignor Sarno requested my permission and the permission of Archbishop José Gómez of Los Angeles to actually carry out an investigation. And both of us said, yes. All for the glory of God.

ITV correspondent Andrew Rabel, also in Rome for the canonizations, was able to interview Fr. Gutierrez, who described in depth the circumstances of the miracle.

So now it’s eight years later, and Pier Giorgio has been canonized. Do you still believe it to be a miracle?

Yes. One of the things that the Vatican looks for in healings like this is that it is instantaneous, permanent and complete. If one of these three elements is missing, then it cannot be taken as a miraculous healing. That’s why the fact that I didn’t have any need of any further treatment or physiotherapy afterwards also contributes to the testimony of the miraculousness of this case: my healing was indeed instantaneous, permanent and complete.

So here you are in Rome for this event. And what was the canonization like for you?

It was a ceremony marked with serenity and peace, and also with beauty and gratitude on my behalf. I was listening to Pope Leo making the declaration of Pier Giorgio and Carlo being saints — not to advertise a person, but to give a testimony of Christian living. All these things show in our flesh what it looks like to be a Christian. This young man was able to follow Jesus in his youth and make his Christian faith an influence not only for his family and friends, but also for society — because Pier Giorgio was very adamant in having Christianity permeate the social life of Italy. And these things are taking place right now — more and more people are starting to discover the testimony and message of Pier Giorgio which, although he died a hundred years ago, are literally current all the same.

*Andrew Rabel, who hails from Australia, has written for the Catholic press for decades. He is also a regular contributor to social media on Catholic issues, with a particular interest in saints and in the Church’s scientific investigation of miracles.