"I am an agricultural engineer and work at the Ministry of Agriculture in Madrid. In October or November 1992 – I can't recall the exact date – I had a conversation in my office with a gentleman whom I had not met before. He came with someone else who told me he was a veterinary surgeon. Later I learned that the first man was Doctor Manuel Nevado, an orthopedic surgeon living in Almendralejo, in the province of Badajoz.

When our business was over and they were taking their leave, I noticed his hands, and was struck by the fact that they were covered with sores. I asked what had happened to him and he told me that he had been suffering from serious chronic radiodermatitis for a number of years. He explained that the condition had been produced by the continuous and repeated exposure of his hands to the action of ionizing radiation. He was a doctor, an orthopedic surgeon, and had often used X-rays to help him set bone fractures in his patients. He added that for the last five months, because of the ulcers on his hands, he had not been able to perform any operations, and that they caused him a lot of pain.

Wanting to help, I gave him a prayer-card of Monsignor Josemaria Escriva, the Founder of Opus Dei. I remember telling him that Monsignor Escriva had been beatified only few months before, and I suggested he could seek his protection and ask for the favor of his hands being cured. He thanked me for the prayer-card and for my concern, and after we had exchanged business cards, he left.

A few days before Christmas, I received a telephone call from Dr. Nevado, who told me, with great joy, that the growths and lesions on his hands had disappeared completely. He attributed the cure to Blessed Josemaria. He said that he was convinced that the cure had no possible medical explanation, and that this was also the opinion of his son, who is a doctor and a specialist in Pathology.

Over the telephone he also said that, at first, when he had received the prayer-card of Blessed Josemaria, he did not have much faith in the effect of prayer. But, he said, his faith increased during a journey he had made to Vienna with his wife a few days later. In Vienna, he had gone to Mass every day in different churches, and had seen a number of prayer-cards of Blessed Josemaria in different languages. They could be found at the Cathedral and in various other churches. When he realized the universal extent of devotion to the Founder of Opus Dei, his confidence in him had increased, and he began to pray for his own cure with greater faith, convinced that he would be able to obtain this favor from God.

He told me that his hands had healed completely just over a fortnight after he began to pray for the cure."

Badajoz, 19 May 1994