MANILA — In 1969, broadcaster Rene Sta. Cruz, who was then 17, was critically ill as he lies comatose in his hospital bed for over a month.
It was during this time that he dreamt of seven behemoth monsters carrying torches and an L-shaped coffin when the Blessed Mother appeared and told him to “say this prayer ‘Panginoong Hesu Kristo, Iligtas mo po ako’ (Lord Jesus Christ, save me)’ three times so I would be healed.”
“Suddenly, I woke up and I asked myself ‘where am I?’ I was disoriented where I was. When I looked around I spotted my parents and brothers and sisters crying,” Sta. Cruz said, as he recalled that momentous event of his life.
“I was in the brink of death when Mama Mary appeared in my dream and saved my life,” he said.
“I was still asleep and dreaming when I recited the prayer,” said Sta. Cruz, radio anchor of “Big Time Balita” of radio DZBB, sister company of Channel 7.
He kept this secret to himself and members of his family and close friends for 49 years but acceded to be interviewed by this writer last week about the miracle he received from the Blessed Mother.
“I was in comatose for over a month after I collapsed due to off-and-on high fever which my attending physician at the Dr. Villa Memorial Hospital in Lipa City diagnosed me of suffering from epilepsy seizure that would lame me the rest of my life,” Sta. Cruz recalled.
He said his neighbors in Barangay Lapu-lapu 2 in San Jose, Batangas carried him to the hospital, which was three kilometers away, because there was no transport available at that time.
“I was lying in my bed, comatose, when I saw in my dream, initially seven monsters carrying torches and circling around me as they tried to put me inside an L-shaped coffin which they nailed before they lowered it to a grave, when a beautiful Lady in white, which I believed was the Blessed Mother, appeared from nowhere, and softly said ‘I will help you, just say this prayer three times, Panginoon Hesu Kristo, iligtas mo ako (Lord Jesus Christ, save me)’ when I woke up,” Sta. Cruz vividly recalled.
The veteran broadcaster said his parents told him that he had been in the hospital for over a one month already.
“I was still dreaming, I said the prayer three times as told by Mama Mary, but I added it by praying to the Blessed Trinity, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,” he recalled.
He said his doctor was flabbergasted after examining him to find out that he was healed of his serious ailment.
“Then my doctor told me to take two medicines, Dilantin and Finobar Vital, for my maintenance to be taken three times a day for the next seven years” the veteran radio anchor said. “My doctor also told me that if I survived after taking the medicines for seven years, the epileptic seizure would be gone.”
In less than one year, however, the radio anchor said he stopped taking the medicines because they were very expensive, and his parents could no longer afford them even after they sold many of their properties.
“I am very thankful to Mama Mary for healing me! It was a great miracle I was healed by God through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary!” Sta. Cruz said.
“To this day, I continue to say fervently the prayer,” he said, as he urged people to also pray for the world to be saved from perdition at this crucial period of mankind’s existence, where there are disasters happening in different parts of the globe. (Ben Cal/PNA)
