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Belgian Miracles SI Jan Feb 2010 pgs 11/12/09 10:17 AM Page 12 INVESTIGATIVE FILES JOE NICKELL Belgian Miracles member of the European open and festering wound. Then Union, Belgium is located in April 1875, he visited the A between the Netherlands, Oostakker shrine where, allegedly, Germany, and France. The coun- he was instantaneously healed, try takes its name from its first after which he “walked normally recorded inhabitants, ancient Celts until his death in 1898” at age sev- known as Belgae, and has a rich enty-six (Neiman 1995, 100–101). history, having been a province of On July 25, 1908, the Holy See the Roman Empire, the heart of of Bruges declared the healing the Carolingian dynasty, and a supernatural. celebrated medieval textile center. Over time, a number of leg- Today, among its many great ends grew up about the case, in- attractions are such historic cities cluding a claim that De Rudder as Brussels, Ghent, and Bruges, had been treated by professor together with museums of Flemish Thiriar, physician to King Léopold art. While it is a country of scien- II (a claim dropped by the mirac- tific advances (a world leader in ulists after a denial by Thiriar him- heart and lung transplants as well self). More significantly, it was as in fertility treatments [World claimed that prior to 1875 De 2000, 129]), it is also, according to Rudder’s unmended leg could be many, a place of miracles. twisted at the fracture point to the I made my first investigative extent of revolving the foot half a pilgrimage to Belgium in 1998 turn (i.e., putting the heel in (accompanied by local skeptic Tim front). Then, when De Rudder Trachet). I returned in 2006 (with was allegedly cured in 1875, the Copy photo from shrine at Oostakker, Belgium, by Joe Nickell Dutch science writer and translator Figure 1. The lower left leg bones of Pierre De Rudder, mending was “instantaneous.” Jan Willem Nienhuys) as a side excur- allegedly healed by a miracle in 1875. Unfortunately, most of the sion from travels in the Netherlands important testimony in the case (Nickell 2007a). On both occasions, I The Belgian Lourdes went unrecorded for eighteen years, and looked at purported wonders such as the I have twice visited the Shrine of Our memories of this age are subject to error healing shrine known as the Belgian Lady of Lourdes (named after the (Delcour 1987). Lourdes, an ancient miracle statue, and a famous healing-spring grotto in the For example, Dr. Van Hoestenberghe vial of the Holy Blood of Christ. French Pyrenees) at Oostakker, Belgium. claimed that he had performed the The shrine’s most celebrated miracle is twisting movement on De Rudder’s leg, the healing of a laborer named Pierre De when in fact the physician’s recollection Joe Nickell, CSI’s senior research fellow, is Rudder, whose lower left leg was broken was a false memory. A letter he had writ- author of many books, including Looking by a felled tree in 1867. Reportedly, De ten on May 12, 1875 (which had be- for a Miracle and Relics of the Christ. Rudder refused amputation and for eight come lost by the time of a canonical His Web site is at www.joenickell.com. years suffered constant pain from his inquiry in 1893 but was rediscovered by 12 VOLUME 34, ISSUE 1 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER SI Jan Feb 2010 pgs 11/12/09 10:30 AM Page 13 1957) revealed that he had not per- with a scar that, reported by Dr. Van physicians who consider the De Rudder formed the twist, nor even seen it, but Hoestenberghe, was “such as one finds a case miraculous almost unanimously do had only heard persons talk about it. long time after a healing” (qtd. in so on the basis that the cure was instanta- Moreover, the twist was apparently Delcour 1987). neous, and that, as we have seen, is depen- not demonstrated at the point of the Other medical evidence likewise sup- dent on dubious testimony. Indeed, there fracture by showing the naked leg. ports the view that De Rudder’s healing is evidence to the contrary. Instead, it was done with the leg clothed, was less than miraculous. A broken leg The De Rudder case gives one pause so the observers could not know where such as he suffered could—with immo- regarding other claims of miraculous the twist actually occurred. This is a cru- bility and good hygiene—have healed healing at Oostakker, Lourdes, and else- cial point because certain supple persons without amputation. Besides, the bones where. Such certifications are often vague can turn their feet almost completely (see figure 1) grew together obliquely in and unscientific. Miracle is not a scientific around, like De Rudder, without concept, and miracle claims are benefit of any abnormal mobility.1 typically only those found to be Although some claimed the leg was “medically inexplicable.” Thus, uncovered when they saw De claimants are engaging in a logical Rudder twist it, two men who were fallacy called “arguing from igno- present for his demonstrations “well rance”—that is, drawing a conclu- over a hundred times” stated the leg sion based on a lack of knowledge was never naked on those occasions (Nickell 2007, 202–205). The De (Delcour 1987). De Rudder’s Rudder case is even worse, since eagerness to demonstrate the effect there is evidence that an injury, at every opportunity suggests not a healed long before, was passed suffering man happy to suffer more off as instantaneous—a miracle but someone performing a stunt that wasn’t. with a purpose—one that will soon become clear. Miracle Statue As to the supposed instanta- Belgium’s most frequented pil- neous nature of the healing, that grimage site is Scherpenheuvel claim depends on the dubious testi- (Dutch for “sharp hill”) in the mony of just three persons: an illit- north-central part of the country. erate woman who was apparently There, in the Middle Ages, stood represented by hearsay and a father a great, solitary oak that was visi- and son who seemed eager to help ble from all around. The spot certify a miracle. (Their story even was a center of superstitious improved over the years.) practices and pagan worship In contrast is the evidence that until, in the fourteenth century, a De Rudder had actually undergone small wooden figure of the “a certain improvement” about Virgin Mary was affixed to the fourteen months after the accident. tree, and the makeshift shrine Photo by Joe Nickell We know that the Viscount who Figure 2. This little statue of the Virgin at Belgium’s most- began to gain fame. In time, mir- employed De Rudder at the time of frequented pilgrimage site is said to be miraculous despite acles began to be attributed to the accident gave the invalid being a replacement. the little statue (see figure 2). worker a pension, characterized as a “nice The first reputed miracle salary.” It was rumored about the village a fashion a surgeon would not have been occurred in 1514 when, according to a that De Rudder was malingering in order proud of. Also, that which would have pious little legend, a shepherd or shep- to effect a life of ease. indeed been beyond nature—the recon- herd boy discovered the figurine lying After the Viscount died on July 26, stitution of De Rudder’s dead tendon— on the ground and intended to take it 1874, his heir stopped the pension, did not occur (De Meester 1957, 106). home. However, the Virgin Mary mirac- whereupon De Rudder’s wife and daugh- One touted proof that the cure was ulously transfixed him—froze him in ter had to begin working. Some eight instantaneous comes from the absence of place—preventing the statue’s removal. months later, De Rudder may have hit thickening of the bone callus at the Subsequently, the shrine became more on a clever plan that would allow him to mending site, but this thickening could widely known. abruptly end his pretended disability so have been reabsorbed by the body in sev- In 1602, a little wooden chapel was he could, necessarily, return to work: he eral months or a few years (Encyclopedia built at the site, and the following year a went to Oostakker and claimed a mirac- Britannica 2009, s.v. “callus”). Adrien new miracle was reported: the statue ulous cure. However, he returned home Delcour (1987) concludes that the wept bloody tears, reportedly in protest SKEPTICAL INQUIRER January / February 2010 13 SI Jan Feb 2010 pgs 11/12/09 10:31 AM Page 14 over the religious schism then plaguing quistadors in Mexico erected a shrine to herd’s grasp was unable to stave off the Low Countries. the Virgin Mary on a hill where the marauding anti-idolaters, suggesting at Still another miracle was said to have Aztecs had a temple to their virgin god- best its powers were limited. occurred in 1604 when troops of the dess Tonantzin [Mullen 1998, 6; Smith Thus the bloody tears were produced Archduke Albert (the Spanish-appointed 1983, 20; Nickell 1993, 29–34; Nickell by a replacement statue, and in any case, governor of the Low Countries) routed 2004, 51–55].) In short, one may ask, the phenomenon—judging from numer- the Protestants and retook Ostend. Albert are the alleged miracles of Scherpen- ous modern examples—was likely a and his wife, the Archduchess Isabella, heuvel attributable to the statue of the pious fraud. In 1985, for instance, a determined to thank God by commis- Virgin and the power of the Virgin her- statue of the virgin that wept and bled in sioning the erection of a monumental self or to pagan deities? Or might there the home of a Quebec railroad worker baroque basilica at the site, inaugurated in have been no miracles at all? proved on examination to have an 1627.
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