Is slain Archbishop Oscar Romero responsible for a miracle? The Vatican steps in to investigate

'It's nice to also remember him like this: a man who continues his martyrdom.'

Slain Archbishop Oscar Romero was declared a martyr and beatified in 2015. Now, the Vatican has opened an investigation into a miracle attributed to him.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The Archbishop was killed as he was saying Mass in 1980. Since then, the local church in San Salvador has been hard at work to see him canonized.

The diocese of San Salvador sent a case to the Vatican of a woman who received a miraculous cure through Romero's intercession.

The miracle and its relation to Archbishop Romero was announced on the church's Twitter and, in Rome, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia confirmed the case to an Italian radio station.

The findings of the diocesan tribunal were sent to the papal representative in El Salvador late February and will be sent to Rome, where medical experts, theologians and cardinals working for the Congregation for the Causes of Saints will investigate.

To be accepted, the miracle must be considered un-explainable by five of seven medical experts reviewing the case. Should the case be accepted, the documentation will then move to Pope Francis by the congregation.

The claim is the "healing of a pregnant woman that at first glance seems inexplicable."

The woman, Maribel Flores, has not made a public statement or come forward, but Paglia described her as a "woman in the seventh month of pregnancy, which was proceeding very badly. According to the clinical data she was expected to die together with the baby. Inexplicably, however, she recovered."

Many prayed to Romero for her recovery and, according to Paglia and the doctors he consulted, no one can explain how she escaped danger.

Jose Luis Escobar Alas, a San Salvador Archbishop, told reporters Sunday that church officials are "convinced" the miracle is authentic, but admits the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints may take quite a while to consider and investigate the incident.

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