In April 2001, the day after his diaconal classes ended for the year, the pain returned in “full fury,” said Deacon Sullivan. A cortisone injection to the spine provided no relief and his doctor again recommended surgery to repair his back, which he said was the worst that his doctor had ever seen. Before the surgery, Deacon Sullivan struggled to complete as many hours as he could in his diaconal internship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Surgery revealed that his back was in an even worse condition than his doctor had thought and that he probably would not be able to walk again for at least four months.

In severe pain after the surgery, Deacon Sullivan again prayed to Cardinal Newman to help him to walk so that he could finish his internship and be ordained with this class.

“I felt a very warm sensation and a tingling all over that lasted about five or 10 minutes and a tremendous sense of joy, exuberance and confidence,” said the deacon, adding that he immediately became pain-free. “I had no pain anymore and I had been in agony a couple of minutes before.”

“I walked all over the hospital and they released me immediately,” he continued. “There is no other explanation than that Cardinal Newman interceded for me.”

Deacon Sullivan’s doctor confirmed that there was again no medical explanation for his recovery. After receiving his doctor’s confirmation, Deacon Sullivan wrote to the postulate for the cause of Cardinal Newman’s beatification and the process for validating the miracle began. On the day of his diaconal ordination in September 2002, he received news that the postulators of the cause for Cardinal Newman’s beatification had voted to present the miracle to Rome for approval.

Deacon Sullivan, who now walks at least a mile and a half a day and can do hours of yard work pain free, says that he has the back of a 30-year old and he owes it all to Cardinal Newman. “I needed a lot of help because I was in serious straits and for some reason Cardinal Newman was made available to me and it was God, who answered my prayers through Newman,” said Deacon Sullivan. “I wouldn’t be deacon or a father or husband without Cardinal Newman. He gave me back my life and I am very, very grateful and I certainly had nothing to do with it.”