Audrey Santo

Audrey Santo was the youngest of four children born to Linda and Steve Santo. On August 9, 1987, three-year-old Audrey was playing outside in the driveway with her four-year-old brother Stephen. When Stephen came inside alone, Linda and her twelve-year-old son, Matthew, went to look for Audrey and found her face down in the backyard swimming pool. Matthew dove in and pulled Audrey from the pool, and she was rushed to the hospital.[2]

Audrey remained in a coma for about three weeks, in intensive care. According to Linda Santo, doctors recommended she be placed in an institution, but the family wanted her at home. In November, almost four months following the accident, Audrey was brought home.[3]

Audrey's father Steve Santo left the family during the weeks after the accident and came back eight years later.[2]

Once she returned home, Audrey required 24-hour nursing care, provided by her family and a team of nurses provided by the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind. She breathed through a ventilator and was on a feeding tube for sustenance, purportedly taking only communion wafers by mouth.[2]

Audrey's family contended that she was in a state called akinetic mutism — unable to speak and with limited movement, but fully alert and awake.[3] However, Edward Kaye, the pediatric neurologist who treated her for eight years following the accident, told a Washington Post reporter that "the cell death is about as bad as you can get and still be alive. Her EEGs are profoundly abnormal. She has brain stem activity, but very, very little above the brain stem."[2] A coma specialist, Ed Cooper, brought in by Linda Santo to help Audrey communicate with her hands, told CBS's 48 Hours in 1999, "If she can become consistent with movements of her hands, down for 'yes,' up for 'no,' or vice versa, it would be meaningful. Right now it's inconsistent."[4]

The Santo family is Catholic. About a year after the accident, Linda took Audrey to Međugorje, which is a popular pilgrimage site in the then Yugoslavia, where the Virgin Mary is purported to have appeared periodically to six local Catholics since 1981. This was a difficult and expensive journey with an incapacitated four-year-old child, but Linda believed it would result in Audrey being healed, even bringing a pair of sandals for Audrey to use once she was restored to health.[5]

Audrey was present at one of the alleged apparitions. According to her mother, she seemed to be aware, and nodded her head as if to say 'yes'. Linda states that Audrey communicated directly with the Virgin Mary and agreed to become a victim soul. In popular, or folk spirituality, a "victim soul" is someone who willingly takes on the suffering of others.[6]

Audrey subsequently went into cardiac arrest and almost died, requiring a medical evacuation back to the United States. Her mother interpreted the child's heart failure as due to the apparition site's proximity to "the biggest abortion clinic in Yugoslavia".[7]

After the family returned from Međugorje, numerous miracles were purported to have occurred in Audrey's bedroom and within the house. The claimed miracles in Audrey's home included icons weeping blood or oil, a bleeding statue of Jesus, blood appearing spontaneously in a tabernacle and on consecrated communion wafers, oil dripping down the walls of the garage, and the Virgin Mary appearing in cloud formations overhead. Linda Santo and a nurse have also allege that Audrey sometimes bore the stigmata, although this has never been documented with a photograph.[5]

"Audrey's popularity is largely a media creation, stemming from a 1996 televised documentary film about her on EWTN, a Christian broadcasting network in Alabama, which spawned a deluge of requests to the Santo family from people wanting to make a pilgrimage to see their daughter."[8]

As word spread about Audrey, hundreds of visitors began coming to pray for healing near Audrey's bedside. Eventually, the family set up visiting hours and built a window in Audrey's bedroom wall through which visitors could view her. The window was later removed by order of the bishop.[9] Audrey was also on several occasions taken to a nearby college stadium or a large church, for a mass at which she could be viewed by the public.[2][5]

Audrey died on April 14, 2007, from cardio-respiratory failure. Family, friends and clergy were at her side. The vigil was held April 17, 2007 and the funeral mass on April 18, 2007, both at St. Paul's Cathedral in Worcester, Massachusetts. The public was allowed to attend these two events, but the burial was private.[12]

In 1999, the Catholic Bishop of Worcester at the time, Daniel P. Reilly, released his preliminary findings on the case. In that report, the Bishop said that "The most striking evidence of the presence of God in the Santo home is seen in the dedication of the family to Audrey."[13]

As for the purported miracles, he said "I want to underscore that any paranormal occurrences are not miraculous in and of themselves".

He also stated in regard to the claim that Audrey was a purported "victim soul", "The term "victim soul" is not an official term in the Church. It was used in some circles in the 18th and 19th century when there was a fascination with suffering and death."

To begin to consider this notion of "victim soul" with regards to Audrey, one would have to establish a corroborated understanding of Audrey's cognitive abilities. This has yet to be done. Beyond that, one would have to determine that Audrey, at the age of three was, and presently is, capable of making a free choice to accept the suffering of others.[13]

With regard to the many pilgrims who were praying to Audrey while she was still alive, he said "praying to Audrey is not acceptable in Catholic teaching." Further, it was stated that "One should only pray for Audrey. Our faith teaches us to pray to God and to pray for the intercession of the saints. Therefore, the distribution of a "Prayer to Audrey" should cease immediately."[13]

In the case of the alleged "miracle oil," his report stated: "We must be careful not to identify this oil as "holy oil," which could be used to anoint a person. The Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, which can only be celebrated by a priest or bishop, uses oil blessed by the bishop at the Mass of Chrism, and is given to those who are seriously ill."[13]

The bishop's report does not confirm any of the alleged miracles and cautions against some of the beliefs being promoted. However, the bishop praised the care Audrey had received from her family. He lauded the "excellent care the family gives to their daughter. This has manifested itself in her physical condition, for example, she has not apparently had bedsores in the eleven years she has been confined to her bed." He celebrated their "constant love and devotion to their daughter is a miracle in the broad sense of the word. They have always recognized the human dignity of their daughter, despite the circumstances."[13]

• Official website
• Video Interview with Linda Santo