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Miracle of Healing. Saint Frances Xavier's best known miracle occurred in March 1921. A nurse at the Cabrini-founded Columbus Hospital in Manhattan accidentally washed out the eyes of an infant named Peter Smith with a 50% solution of silver nitrate instead of the routine 1%. Three doctors who examined the child's scarred eyes said that there was no hope for his sight. But the hospital's Superior pinned a relic of Mother Cabrini to the baby's nightdress and called the sisters to the chapel to pray all night. Next morning the doctors admitted that a miracle had occurred—the scars were miraculously gone.
But day-old Peter Smith now had pneumonia, was running the normally fatal temperature of 108. Once again the doctors gave him up. Once again the Sisters of the Sacred Heart prayed all night for Mother Cabrini's intercession. Once again morning found the child completely cured. Last week, while the bells of Rome rang out and the Holy Father said High Mass in honor of the first U.S. saint, 25-year-old Peter Smith, now a veteran of the Pacific war and a candidate for the priesthood, retired with his mother to the Catskills to meditate on St. Frances Xavier Cabrini.