Testimony in the Cause of Frederic Ozanam The Testimony of Pio Benedicto Ottoni Two weeks ago, my son Fernando was suffering from tonsillitis, for which he was being treated by having blue methylene applied to his throat. Still aged only eighteen months, he had always been very delicate. In addition to painful teething, he was being treated for a kidney problem, diagnosed by a leading doctor from Rio de Janeiro, Dr Nascimento Gurgel, Professor of the Medical Faculty in the University of that city and a specialist pediatrician. During the night between Sunday, 31 January, and Monday, 1 February, the child was unable to sleep and was very restless, due to an unusual kind of cough which we had never heard from any of our ten children. I was worried and, first thing in the morning, went to find Dr. Albert Braune, but he had already left on his visiting round. I eventually caught up and brought him back home with me. He had hardly finished examining the sick child before announcing that it was a strongly suspected case of croup, a diagnosis also confirmed by the absence of any fever (36.8 C). A large thick patch, visible on the right side of his throat, was the size of a bean. He already had great difficulty breathing, his crying was muffled and his coughing stridulous. He was immediately given a Roux anti-diphteria injection. The doctor thought the illness quite advanced. When he had gone out of the room, leaving us in a state of distress easy to imagine, my wife remained for a few moments alone, quietly weeping, leaning against the door-post. At last, she said: "If he has got that illness, he'sso delicate that he won't be able to fight it". Throughout the night, his illness took hold; the child's state of health deteriorated. At 7.00 p.m., the doctor came back; he found the patient worse and realised the seriousness of the case. "It isn't hopeless but the family should be warned to expect the worst. His laboured breathing means his bronchials are already affected; he's finding it more and more difficult to breathe and, besides, this condition usually attacks the kidneys; the anti-diphteria serum doesn't seem to have had much effect on the patient." Since my son was in such a critical state, due mainly to congestion of the kidneys, my wife was correct in saying he was too weak ever to fight a serious illness. The child was suffering from urinary complications. The doctor gave him another injection of antidiphteria serum, recommending he should be given drinks continually and that a specimen of his urine should be kept for analysis. We spent the whole night applying embrocations and giving him drinks of milk with Paraguay tea (a sort of local tea), every two hours, as well as the doses of medicine prescribed for his bronchitis and warm compresses on his chest. The child was completely exhausted and yet could not sleep. The following morning, Tuesday 2 February, at 8 o'clock, the doctor arrived accompanied with his son, Sylvio Braune, a doctor himself. The latter examined the sick child and, together with Dr. Mario Pradal, who had also been celled to the bed-side, totally agreed with the diagnosis. He made a slight modification to the bronchitis medicine and prescribed another injection of anti-diphteria serum. Since the retention of urine had ceased, I asked if this might be an encouraging symptom. He replied: "The thing we have to fear is that the kidneys might seize up". Until then and during the whole illness, it had been impossible to obtain a specimen of urine for examination, simply because the child, in his continual state of exhaustion, had been unable to function. The whole household was devastated. In such circumstances I needed to leave home fore while, due to professional commitments, but this absence was providentially resulted in the great blessing we received, as I am now going to explain. We were living in Friburgo, a small summer residence in the heart of the mountains, four hours from Rio de Janeiro. I used to spend Sundays with my family and usually went down each Monday evening to the office of my legal practice. On Saturday 30 January, I had come back up from Rio to Friburgo, bringing various papers with me. These were important documents concerning a case to which I was applying the finishing touches. They were crucial to the interests of some people of modest means whose problems I had sorted out after much difficulty. But all would have been lost if I didn't bring everything to a successful conclusion. The illness which my son had contracted and the seriousness of his condition had prevented me from returning to Rio on the Monday. My client's interests were threatened. A single day in Rio would be enough for me to finish or, at least, to set matters on the right lines towards a successful conclusion and prevent a waste of all the good work which had been done over a long period. I therefore reached an arrangement with the doctor, after explaining how I was afraid of being kept in Friburgo for too long, on account of my son's continual deterioration. I decided to go to Rio, late on Tuesday afternoon, returning either the following evening or on Thursday morning. He asked me for my address, so that he could send me a telegram in case of emergency. It was typical of the doctor's kindness and dedication that he took such precautions during my absence. You can easily imagine how I felt, looking at my son for possibly the last time and wondering whether I would see him alive again. I kissed him with great tenderness and commended him to the arms of Providence, taking away, firmly imprinted in my eyes, the image of his suffering and tormented features which bore the painful expression of martyrdom. When I arrived at my house in Nictheroy (a town close to Rio de Janeiro, on the other side of Guanabara bay), I did not see my father until 10.00 p.m., because he had gone to his St Vincent de Paul Society meeting (Holy Spirit Conference), in RIo de Janeiro. He had been Conference President for several years and the meetings were held every Tuesday. Shaken to the core by the news I gave him, he comforted me by his serenity and deep confidence in God. While we were still talking, a telegram arrived which my wife had sent from Friburgo at 9.30 p.m.: "Fernando worse. Come back !" I was then determined to leave, first thing in the morning, after putting one of my brothers, who also was a lawyer, in charge of the urgent case which had caused me to leave my son's bed-side. I withdrew into my office to write a letter of instruction, while my father retired to his bedroom. At about 11.30 p.m., I rejoined him and he told me: "Pig, you'll find your son's health improved and the other children will not catch his illness (one of them, aged only 7 months, was still being breast-fed by his mother, who needed to stay constantly near the invalid). Let us be confident: if it's God's will, that's how it will be. A moment ago, I knelt down and asked Frederic Ozanam for a miracle. The Cause for his Beatification has been introduced and miracles are needed for it to succeed; let us have confidence." What was happening meanwhile in Friburgo and why had my wife sent me such an alarming telegram ? Soon after I had left, at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the child's condition had deteriorated: he began going into convulsions, alternating with bouts of lethargy. Summoned by an emergency call, the doctor administered an extra injection of serum but with little effect. The invalid remained in the same state. At about 7 o'clock, the doctor resumed and repeated the treatment. The child was now covered in a cold sweat; his little body was like ice, his eyes dilated, his breathing remained laboured and he was unable to swallow anything. He was very pale, with discoloured lips, but he had no fever. The doctor pronounced the case hopeless and told my wife: "Be brave and resign yourself; this is a very worrying night; it's a terrible night. What good would it do to mislead you ?" My wife asked him if there was any hope and he replied: "If only he could sleep, there would be hope for the serum to work; but, in the state he's in now!... It was then that my wife sent the telegram calling me back home. I later discovered that, during the same night, the doctor had told various people how he did not think Fernando would see the next morning. The sick child's condition remained unchanged, with all the alarming symptoms described above, until he fell asleep at about half-past eleven. Some time later, my wife became afraid that he might be growing weaker and she brought him some hot coffee. He swallowed it with no trouble and then felt so much better that he asked for more. He was next given some which he also enjoyed drinking and found no difficulty in swallowing. He went back to sleep, still rather restless, fuming over from one side to the other, but breathing normally. At about 4 o'clock in the morning, my wife felt reassured and went to lie down. She had been suffering so much more intensely, being alone and deprived of her husband's usual support, at such a worrying time. One of the most tender mothers the world had ever known, she had watched her child Iying in a desperate state but she became fully convinced that something extraordinary had been happening. She went to bed, thanking God she could see her child out of danger. In the morning, she immediately tried to tell me to stay in Rio and finish my work. But at 7 o'clock I had already left for Friburgo, where I was due to arrive at 11. When I did arrive, I immediately noticed the joyful expression on my wife's face. She couldn't wait to tell me that Fernando was improving and how she had telegraphed me with the good news. I went into my sick child's bedroom and... how marvellous ! There I was with the image of my son's suffering and tormented features still imprinted on my retina, suffering the martyrdom of that dreadful illness. This picture had stayed with me since the Sunday night which had, however, been less distressing than the Tuesday night when he had been close to death. I now found my child looking beautifully healthy: his eyes were bright and clear, his lips pink, his features relaxed, without any trace of the suffering he had undergone twelve hours previously. With tears in my eyes, I immediately told how my father had asked Frederic Ozanam fore miracle. I listened to my wife's account of everything which happened while I had been away and we then became convinced that Ozanam had obtained the miracle asked of him. Having hurried back to the house, first thing in the morning, the doctor was agreeably surprised at the change. He injected more serum. The improvement continued with unbelievable speed and, the following evening, only forty-eight hours after the illness had been at its worst, little Fernando's throat was completely clear on the left side; only a few very small patches remained at the right side. He was laughing and joking with the maidservant. Friday, Saturday and Sunday were three days of genuine convalescence and, on Monday evening, I was able to set out again for work, completely reassured. I came back at the end of the week. Little Fernando was joining in everything again with his brothers, having left the bedroom where he had been isolated, so that it could be completely sterilised. The illness did not spread to any of the other children, despite the fact they had remained under the same roof. It did not even affect 6-months-old Jean-Marie, whose mother was breast-feeding him but needed to be constantly with the little invalid, especially during my absence; all the others escaped who had shared the bedroom which, due to an Inexplicable oversight, was not disinfected, after Fernando had slept in it, during the night of 31 January, already suffering from the cough typical of croup. When offering up our Communions, my wife and I had been resigned, from the outset, to seeing our little Fernando win eternal glory. We acknowledged God as Master of his creatures, calling them when He willed it. When we realized the extraordinary event which I have just described, we begged Our Lord that, after saving our child's life and giving him virtually another existence, He might continue in a manner befitting His grandeur by making this a magnificent instrument of his mercy, which would serve as a means of saving souls. I must add that, although we said many prayers to Our Lord for Fernando, we had no recourse to any special saint. My wife had placed everything into the hands of the Blessed Virgin, universal mediatrix, through whom all graces must come from the Most High, but we had not addressed any special invocation to her. It is true that I did light a candle, on the first day (Monday 1 February) at the Blessed Sacrament altar in the church at Friburgo, invoking also the patron saints of little Fernando: St Anthony of Padua and St Francis of Assisi, but his condition was worsening and we had prepared ourselves for his departure to Heaven. On 3 February, the Feast of St Blaise, we invited Fr Jose Texeira, assistant to the parish priest of Friburgo, to visit us at home. He gave the blessing of St Blaise to us all and especially to the sick child. It was given on the Wednesday evening when, after returning to Friburgo, I had already realised, just as I have described, the sudden and extraordinary change which had occurred during the previous night, Feast of the Purification of Our Lady, at about 11.30 p.m.. That was at the time when, with my child desperately ill and close to death in Friburgo, my revered father was praying for a miracle through the intercession of Frederic Ozanam, to whose work he had lovingly devoted some thirty years. . Pio Benedicto Ottoni (Fernando's Father) I fully agree with the terms of this report. Nova Friburgo, 13 March 1926, Albert Braune Medical Practitioner I have read and confirm "In fide parochi" that this account of Dr Pio Benedicto Ottoni (who is a Catholic) is completely true. Nova Friburgo, 21 March 1926, Mgr Jose Silvestre Alves de Mirana Parish Priest Biography | Chronology Announcement of Beatification | Stages Toward Canonization Ozanam: A Man of Yesterday A Man for Tomorrow Blessed Frederic Ozanam: a lay saint for our time Index to the Frederic Ozanam Website | St. Vincent de Paul Society Index Page Contact John Freund, C.M. with questions or comments about this site.