Miracle

A miracle is defined by Merriam-Webster (2009) as:

an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs

an extremely outstanding or unusual event, thing, or accomplishment

Christian Science: a divinely natural phenomenon experienced humanly as the fulfillment of spiritual law

Other definitions include:

a remarkably good event that has no plausible scientific explanation

an extremely unlikely occurrence consistent with faith or prayer

a joyous happening contrary to all reasonable expectation

"a violation of the laws of nature" (David Hume)

Though the term "miracle" can often be heard from Christians and non-Christians alike, the entire Bible only contains one genuine reference to "miracle" and that was a quote of a non-believer (the Pharaoh) in Exodus 7:9 (RSV): "When Pharaoh says to you, 'Prove yourselves by working a miracle,' then you shall say to Aaron, 'Take your rod and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.'"

Under Christianity and Judaism, God is truth and a miracle is nothing more than a "sign" of the truth. "Miracle" is the non-believer's term for what believers properly describe as a "sign", a term that does appear repeatedly in the Bible. The scholar Chad Walsh echoes C.S. Lewis—Miracles: A Preliminary Study(1947, Macmillan)—when he states that no other religion bases its ideas upon miracles as much as does Christianity. Its foundation is the Incarnation.

List of miracles approved by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints

• Stigmata (and other signs) of St. Francis of Assisi
• Prophecies and miraculous apparitions of St. Bernadette
• Apparition of the Mary at Fatima on the 13th day of six consecutive months in 1917, starting on 13 May.
• Stigmata, bilocation, levitation and prophecy of St. Pio of Pietrelcina (born Francesco Frocione)
• Blood miracle of St. Januarius (also know St. Gennaro)
• The Virgin of the tears: 1953, Syracuse (Sicily) - A statue of the Virgin Mary produces real human tears.