Diana Basile, a 43-year-old Italian mother of three sons, was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1972. She was blind in one eye, could walk only with difficulty and suffered from perineal dermatitis. In January 1984, she was diagnosed with clinical depression as her physical condition continued to deteriorate. In May, a friend suggested that she go to Medjugorje on pilgrimage. On the evening of May 23, 1984, she was allowed to attend the apparition. Her testimony follows:
“At that point I no longer wanted to enter the room…but the door was opened and I went in. I knelt just behind the door. When the children came in and knelt down…I heard a loud noise. After that I remember nothing, except an indescribable joy and certain forgotten episodes of my life passing before my eyes as though on film. When it was all over, I followed the children, who went straight to the main altar in the Church. I was walking just like everybody else, and I knelt down just as they did. It didn’t actually occur to me that anything extraordinary had happened, until [my friend] came up to me in tears.â€
That evening, Diana Basile found that the dermatitis had completely disappeared. Her right eye, useless for 12 years, had regained perfect vision-even better than that of the left eye which was only 90% good. The next day she walked the six miles from the hotel to the Church in Medjugorje-barefoot. And as if that were not enough, in the afternoon, she climbed the rocky path up Apparition Mountain.
