Quote: Originally posted by helpmewin on Mar 5, 2013
we don't know what he did or didn't do just because it's not all written in the bible:
So here, without further ado, is some of the evidence the faithful provide to prove that God has replaced amputated limbs in the past and could again if He felt like it.
Like many other miracles, this kind is based on biblical accounts of Jesus healing cripples, as in Luke 6:6-11.
There's no specific description of him replacing amputated limbs but the saints who came afterwards never let that limit them.
Take the case of St. Augustine (CE 354-430), for instance. An official of the city of Carthage had part of his leg removed when a sore turned gangrenous and the surgeon was preparing to cut off the rest of it to prevent the further spread of the infection when "St. Augustine prayed, and the leg was not only instantly healed, but even the amputated part was restored" (A Dictionary of Miracles).
Of course, that was only part of a leg that had been cut off. St. Anthony of Padua (CE 1195-1231)'s miracle left St. Augustine's in the dust:
A man in the confessional told St. Anthony of Padua that he had kicked his mother; whereupon the saint said to him sharply, "the foot that could kick one's mother ought to be cut off." The man on his return home actually cut off his foot. When St. Anthony was told thereof, he ordered the maimed man to be brought to him, and, making the sign of the cross on the maimed limb, the foot was restored to him (Ibid., quoting from The Lives of the Saints, Edward Kinesman, 1623).
Unfortunately, there seems to be a little confusion here since the exact same story is told about St. Peter of Verona (CE 1206-1252).
Sometimes you don't even need prayer to accomplish a little miracle-healing. St. Attalus (CE 627) reattached a severed thumb using spit and St. Francis of Paula (CE 1416-1507) grew two eyes and a mouth on a baby born without them... also with spit.
Then there's the "Miracle of Calanda" which supposedly took place in Calanda, Spain in CE 1640. Miguel Juan Pellicier, a farm laborer, had a leg amputated after a cart ran over it and it became gangrenous. Three years later, after rubbing the stump with holy oil and dreaming of being within the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Pillar, he awoke to find his leg miraculously restored. A great deal has been made in the last decade about all the evidence that supports this claim for a miracle and you can read the pros and cons of the argument in the entry on Wikipedia.
As far as I know, Calanda is the most recent case of spontaneous regrowth of an amputated limb on record... if it's actually true. If such a miracle happened and was documented in more modern times, it would make headlines all over the world.