Concept

Juan Manuel Gutierrez (Frassati 2017)

Intro

In the fall of 2017 Juan Manuel Gutierrez, a seminarian studying for the priesthood near Los Angeles, tore his Achilles tendon playing basketball. An MRI showed a full tear, and a doctor told him he would need surgery. He was worried about the cost and about losing time in his training, so he started a nine-day prayer, a novena, asking Pier Giorgio Frassati to pray for him. He was not asking for a miracle, only for help.

A few days into the novena, praying alone in the seminary chapel, he felt warmth in his injured heel. He stopped wearing his brace. When the surgeon examined him on 15 November 2017, the tear was gone and surgery was no longer needed.

The Vatican investigated the case, and Pope Francis approved it as a miracle on 25 November 2024. It was the miracle that allowed Frassati to be declared a saint, and he was canonized on 7 September 2025, on the same day as Carlo Acutis. The case is filed in the documented tier because it passed the formal Vatican process.

Pier Giorgio Frassati (1901 to 1925) climbing in the Alps, before 1925. From Luciana Frassati's photographic biography of her brother. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The 30-second version:

In 2017 seminarian Juan Manuel Gutierrez tore his right Achilles tendon playing basketball at St. John's Seminary in Camarillo, California. An MRI on 31 October confirmed a full tear and surgery was recommended. He began a novena to Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati on 1 November, felt warmth in the heel a few days later, and on 15 November his surgeon found no tear and no gap and said surgery was unnecessary. Pope Francis approved the miracle on 25 November 2024, and Frassati was canonized on 7 September 2025. The medical file is not public, and an Achilles tear can sometimes heal without surgery, so the case is strongest on the speed of the change.

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In full

The case is the canonization miracle of Pier Giorgio Frassati (born in Turin on 6 April 1901, died there of poliomyelitis on 4 July 1925), a lay Catholic known for his care of the poor and his love of mountaineering, beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1990. The Holy See Press Office bulletin of 25 November 2024 records that Pope Francis authorized the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree on "the miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati," after a favorable vote of the cardinals and bishops in ordinary session. Catholic News Agency, carried by Catholic World Report, and OSV News identified the healed man as Father Juan Manuel Gutierrez, whose name had been kept confidential during the process. According to those reports he tore his Achilles tendon playing basketball with fellow seminarians in 2017; an MRI on 31 October 2017 confirmed the tear; he began a novena to Frassati on 1 November; and on 15 November his surgeon performed the Thompson test, found no tear and no palpable gap, judged surgery unnecessary, and confirmed that the October MRI had been accurate. In 2020 he reported the favor to Monsignor Robert Sarno, a former official of the Dicastery, who opened the diocesan inquiry with the approval of Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles. Pope Leo XIV canonized Frassati, together with Carlo Acutis, in St. Peter's Square on 7 September 2025. Under the Miracles schema the case is Tier 1 on Vatican ratification.

Summary

Juan Manuel Gutierrez, a seminarian at St. John's Seminary in Camarillo, California, tore his right Achilles tendon playing basketball in the fall of 2017. An MRI on 31 October confirmed a full tear and surgery was recommended. He began a novena to Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati on 1 November, felt warmth in the heel while praying in the chapel a few days later, and stopped using his brace. On 15 November his surgeon found the tendon intact and said surgery was not needed. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles opened an inquiry after he reported the healing in 2020, Pope Francis approved the miracle on 25 November 2024, and Frassati was canonized on 7 September 2025.

The event

1. The man. Gutierrez was born in Mexico and raised Catholic, stopped practicing around age 14, and later called himself an atheist. After moving to Omaha, Nebraska, at 19 to join his father, a retreat he attended reluctantly began his return to the Church. He entered formation in 2013 (CNA, via Catholic World Report, 23 December 2024).
2. The injury. In the fall of 2017, as a seminarian at St. John's Seminary in Camarillo, he tore his Achilles tendon playing basketball with other seminarians. CNA dates the injury to October; OSV News to September. He first thought it minor and got around for some weeks with a borrowed air cast and crutches (OSV News, December 2024).
3. The diagnosis. An MRI on 31 October 2017 confirmed the tear, and a doctor recommended surgery. He dreaded the cost and the delay to his formation (CNA; OSV News).
4. The prayer. On 1 November 2017 he began a novena to Frassati, whom he knew little about beyond videos he had watched. He did not ask for a healing but, in his words, for "God's help with my injury," and promised to make known any favor received (CNA; OSV News).
5. The chapel. A few days into the novena, praying alone in the seminary chapel, he felt heat in the injured heel and stopped wearing his brace (CNA).
6. The examination. On 15 November 2017 his surgeon performed the Thompson test, found no tear, and could not feel the gap a tear leaves. Gutierrez reported no pain. The surgeon said surgery did not seem necessary, confirmed that the October MRI had been accurate, and gave him his records (CNA).
7. The inquiry. An email to the promoters of Frassati's cause went unanswered. In 2020 he told Monsignor Robert Sarno, his former teacher and a former official of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, who opened the diocesan investigation with Archbishop Gomez's approval (OSV News).
8. Recognition. Gutierrez was ordained a priest in June 2022 (CNA). Pope Francis approved the decree on 25 November 2024 (Holy See Press Office), and Pope Leo XIV canonized Frassati on 7 September 2025.

Witnesses + documentation

• Juan Manuel Gutierrez, the patient, who has spoken publicly about the healing, including at a press conference at St. John the Baptist Church in Baldwin Park, California, on 16 December 2024 (OSV News).
• The treating surgeon, unnamed in the published reports, who read the October MRI and performed the November examination (CNA).
• Monsignor Robert Sarno, who brought the case forward and led the diocesan inquiry (OSV News).
• Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, who approved the inquiry (OSV News).
• The Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, whose medical consultors, theologians and cardinals and bishops reviewed the case before the decree (Holy See Press Office, 25 November 2024).

Verification

What was checked:

1. The official recognition. The Holy See Press Office bulletin of 25 November 2024 confirms the decree on "the miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati" and the favorable vote of the cardinals and bishops. The bulletin does not name the patient; the identification comes from CNA and OSV News reporting after the decree.
2. The imaging. The diagnosis rests on an MRI, not on symptoms alone, and the surgeon reportedly confirmed that the MRI had been read correctly before finding the tendon intact.
3. The timeline. The reported sequence is short and dated: MRI on 31 October, novena from 1 November, examination on 15 November.

Naturalistic explanations considered:

• Healing without surgery. Some Achilles tendon ruptures are treated without surgery, with bracing and rehabilitation over months, so non-surgical healing is not impossible in itself. Against it, the reported finding is not a slow recovery but an intact tendon, with no gap and a normal Thompson test, about two weeks after an MRI showed a full tear.
• A partial tear misread as full. If the October MRI overstated the injury, a fast recovery would be less surprising. The reports state that the surgeon confirmed the MRI was accurate, but the images have not been published.
• Expectation and placebo. Feeling warmth and stopping the brace are subjective, and a placebo response could change pain. It would not close a torn tendon, and the case rests on the clinical examination, not on the feeling.

Caveats and remaining uncertainties:

• The medical file is not public. None of the sources reviewed prints the MRI reports, the second examination, or the report of the Vatican medical board, and the surgeon is unnamed.
• The month of the injury differs. CNA says October 2017 and OSV News says September 2017. Both agree on the October MRI.
• The narrative comes through Catholic sources. The detailed account is the healed man's own, reported by Catholic news agencies, not an independent clinical publication.
• No independent skeptical analysis was found. A search turned up no published critique of this case.

Apologetic value

• A narrow, checkable claim. The claim is a specific structural injury, imaged and then examined by the same specialist, with a clear before and after two weeks apart. Narrow claims are harder to explain away than vague ones.
• No expectation of a miracle. By his own account Gutierrez did not ask to be healed, only helped. That weakens the charge that hope produced the result.
• Answered prayer, read in biblical terms. "The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working" (James 5:16, ASV). The healing is God's; the recognition attributes it to Frassati's intercession, which Protestant readers will read differently.
• Honest limits. Some tendon tears heal without surgery, the images are not public, and the account comes through church sources. Deploy it as one strand in a cumulative case, not as a stand-alone proof. See Argument from Miracles.
• How to deploy it. Lead with the imaged diagnosis and the two-week interval, concede that slow non-surgical healing happens, and press the question of how a full tear confirmed on MRI could be closed, with no palpable gap, within about two weeks.

See also

• Miracles, master hub
• _schema, the vetting standard this entry follows
• Valeria Valverde (Carlo Acutis 2022), the canonization miracle of Carlo Acutis, canonized the same day as Frassati
• Matheus Vianna (Carlo Acutis 2013), another miracle involving a young man and a recent cause
• Argument from Miracles, the argument this case supports
• David Hume, whose standard for credible miracle testimony this case presses on
• Naturalism, the worldview such cases press against