On the 17th of December, 1899, the fast mail on the way from
Bordeaux to Paris met with a collision. In the mail car was Gabriel
Gargam, a 30-year-old post office express clerk. At the time of the
wreck the train was going at the speed of fifty miles an hour. By the
crash Gargam was thrown fifty-two feet. He was terribly bruised and
broken and paralyzed from the waist down. He was barely alive when
lifted onto a stretcher. Taken to a hospital, his existence for some
time was a living death. After eight months he had wasted away to a
mere skeleton, weighing but seventy-eight pounds, although normally a
big man. His feet became gangrenous. He could take no solid food and
was obliged to take nourishment by a tube. Only once in twenty-four
hours could he be fed even that way.

Gargam's condition was pitiable in the extreme. He could not help
himself even in the most trifling needs. Two trained nurses were
needed day and night to assist him. Previous to the accident, Gargam
had not been to church for fifteen years. His aunt, who was a nun of
the Order of the Sacred Heart, begged him to go to Lourdes. He
refused. She continued her appeals to him to place himself in the
hands of Our Lady of Lourdes. He was deaf to all her prayers. After
continuous pleading of his mother he consented to go to Lourdes. It
was now two years since the accident, and not for a moment had he
left his bed all that time. He was carried on a stretcher to the
train. The exertion caused him to faint, and for a full hour he was
unconscious. They were on the point of abandoning the pilgrimage, as
it looked as if he would die on the way, but the mother insisted, and
the journey was made.

Arrived at Lourdes, he was carried to the miraculous pool and
tenderly placed in its waters with no effect. Rather a bad effect
resulted, for the exertion threw him into a swoon and he lay
apparently dead. On the way back they saw the procession of the
Blessed Sacrament approaching. They stood aside to let it pass,
having placed a cloth over the face of the man whom they supposed to
be dead.

As the priest passed carrying the Sacred Host, he pronounced
Benediction over the sorrowful group around the covered body. Soon
there was a movement from under the covering. To the amazement of the
bystanders, the body raised itself to a sitting posture. While the
family were looking dumbfounded and the spectators gazed in
amazement, Gargam said in a full, strong voice that he wanted to get
up. He got up and stood erect, walked a few paces and said that he
was cured. The multitude looked in wonder, and then fell on their
knees and thanked God for this new sign of His power at the shrine of
His Blessed Mother. For two years hardly any food had passed his lips
but now he sat down to the table and ate a hearty meal.

On August 20th, 1901, sixty prominent doctors examined Gargam.
Without stating the nature of the cure, they pronounced him entirely
cured. Gargam, out of gratitude to God in the Holy Eucharist and His
Blessed Mother, consecrated himself to the service of the invalids at
Lourdes. Fifteen years after his miraculous cure he was still engaged
in his strenuous and devoted work. He was for years a living, visible
testimony of the supernatural.