Former Treasury Secretary recounted miraculous turning of rosary to gold

The chain was just some cheap, dull alloy, yet it suddenly appeared radiant and golden and vibrant and remained so. I wasn't quite sure what to make of it, and upon my return brought the rosary to a jeweler for an appraisal. He confirmed that the chain, inexplicably, had turned to solid gold. I can't explain the transformation, either of the rosary or my own life, except as a sign of Divine intervention."

February 23, 2004 - Reported in [Spirit Daily.com] online newspaper. In a new book, the late Treasury Secretary William E. Simon is quoted as relating a "miracle" that he said occurred at the apparition site of Medjugorje in Bosnia-Hercegovina.

Simon -- who served as secretary of the Treasury under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, as well as president of the U.S. Olympic Committee -- recounted a number of profound mystical experiences, starting with a trip to the famous apparition site of Lourdes in southern France. "My first pilgrimage to Lourdes in 1993 changed my life dramatically and permanently," recalled this counselor to presidents. "I saw the sick healed and the downtrodden embraced with solace and hope."

That, according to a close friend, industrialist J. Peter Grace, had a greater effect on the former cabinet official "than anything he had ever done."

In the book, A Time for Reflection (Regnery), Simon -- a former Wall Street wunderkind and multi-millionaire whose recollections were compiled by writer John M. Caher -- then dropped this bombshell:

"At Medjugorje, I was actually the recipient of a miracle. Medjugorje ('between the hills') is a small village in Bosnia-Hercegovina (formerly Yugoslavia) where, since 1981, the Blessed Mother has been appearing and giving messages to the world, mainly through six young people. Since the first apparitions in 1984, millions of people of all faiths have visited Medjugorje. Countless have been healed and converted.

"After our first Mass at Medjugorje, I remember telling my son Billy, 'That is the closest I've ever felt to Heaven on earth.' I then pulled out the old, inexpensive rosary beads that I had bought about ten years earlier, and noticed that the chain was glittering in the sun.

"That was strange. The chain was just some cheap, dull alloy, yet it suddenly appeared radiant and golden and vibrant and remained so. I wasn't quite sure what to make of it, and upon my return brought the rosary to a jeweler for an appraisal. He confirmed that the chain, inexplicably, had turned to solid gold. I can't explain the transformation, either of the rosary or my own life, except as a sign of Divine intervention."

During a return pilgrimage to Lourdes, Simon said he felt the call to become a Eucharistic minister and tend to the sick and needy, especially those who were near death. This he did until his own death in 2000. His book carries the endorsements of President Ford, the Honorable George P. Shultz, and New York's Cardinal Edward M. Egan.

Simon is one of many leaders who have been touched by Medjugorje and Lourdes. President Ronald Reagan read messages from Medjugorje and attempted to speak with one of the seers after a glowing account of the site from Alfred Kingon, who served both as an assistant secretary of the Treasury and also Ambassador to the European Communities. Ambassador Kingon visited Medjugorje in 1987 and was so impressed that he sent a two-and-half page memo to Reagan about the messages. Soon after, he transmitted a similar report to Mikhail Gorbachev through an Austrian ambassador and the U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union. "Something of great import is going on," Kingon once said of Medjugorje. "The whole world is going to change."

Learn more about these events at [Sr. Emmanuel Maillard].