A little laying-on of hands works wonders for American visitor
A regular weekly look-back at some offbeat or interesting stories that have appeared in the Citizen over its 175-year history.
The healing power of Christ was front-page news a century ago when, on Oct. 7, 1920, a Miss Edith Lafontaine announced to the Citizen that she was ready to go home.
Originally from Bozeman, Mont., Lafontaine had been bedridden and in the care of St. Luke's hospital, on the site now occupied by St. Luke's Park, at Gladstone Avenue and Elgin Street, since January five years earlier, when an operation left her paralyzed from the waist down and unable to walk.
Enter (literally) James Moore Hickson, an Australian-born, Church of England faith healer who, as part of a five-year, five-continent tour to lay his hands on a quarter-million sick and infirm souls, had in June visited St. Alban's the Martyr Church in Ottawa, and, as the 24-year-old Lafontaine's luck would have it, took a side trip to St. Luke's for a little extra handiwork. Hickson himself made no claim of being a miracle man or healer, the Citizen noted during that visit.
“I have no more power to heal than that electric bulb had to give light without the electricity that feeds it,” he said. “I have never healed anybody. Yield to the influence of Jesus Christ. I want you to try not to be anxious about yourself — pray for the one next you; pray for those around you.”
“These few broken sentences,” the Citizen reported, “quietly uttered, give a clear insight into the heart and belief and powers of James Moore Hickson.”
Lafontaine certainly had no doubt as to who cured her. Prior to Hickson's visit, she had become “so despondent that she lost all faith in the possibility of a cure,” the Citizen reported. “Then, with (St. Alban's) Canon Whalley, Mr. Hickson came and laid hands on her head and prayed.”
Her transformation began immediately, as her feet, “deformed through contraction of the cords, began to straighten out, and the same day she felt able to walk.”
Before long, Lafontaine's strength (“and faculties”) returned, and she was soon walking, unaided, “with the ease and grace of any other girl of her age.”
She admitted she was skeptical when Hickson came to the hospital, but agreed he could see her if he wished.
“I was deeply moved by the prayer,” she later confessed, “and felt a mild shock through my body when he laid his hands on me. For the first time in many months I felt deeply affected by prayer, and again I believed in God. I said a quiet prayer myself, calling upon God to heal me if it was His will. Almost as soon as Mr. Hickson left the room I felt different, and had a sensation of being able to walk.”
Additionally, she says she felt her right foot, three and a half inches shorter than the left, straightening out, which a nurse confirmed.
Weighing only 73 pounds when Hickson visited, Lafontaine had put on an additional 35 pounds since, and, following a trial train journey to Lancaster and back, was anxious to return to Montana.
“The hospital authorities at St. Luke's have little to say regarding Miss Lafontaine's recovery,” the Citizen's story concluded.
“One of the physicians said that the facts were there, that her cure dated from the visit of Mr. Hickson, and that nothing remained to be said. The nurses are pleased at Miss Lafontaine's recovery, and ascribe it to faith and healing and the domination of mind over matter.”