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A French nun reportedly cured of Parkinson's disease after prayers to the late pope John Paul II will give evidence to the Church dignitary overseeing his passage towards sainthood, a source close to him said Wednesday.
Polish priest Slowomir Oder will open a hearing of the woman's testimony in France Friday.
The woman is a member of a religious community in France and worked with newborn children. No further details of her identity or the place of the hearing were available.
She is reported to have recovered suddenly from the terminal phase of Parkinson's disease in October 2005, six months after the death of John Paul II.
An earlier Italian media report had said she was suffering from cancer. The I-media agency reported that she was cured when her fellow nuns prayed at her bedside to the late John Paul II in October 2005.
Convincing evidence of a miracle -- usually a medical cure with no scientific explanation -- is a key part of the beatification process. A second miracle must be found for canonisation as a saint.
Oder, leading the appeal for the former head of the Roman Catholic Church to be beatified, will open the hearing, which will also be attended by the archbishop of the diocese where the miracle was reported to have taken place.
The woman's testimony will then be taken into account during the beatification process overseen by the diocese of Rome.
Stanislaw Dziwisz, archbishop of the Polish city of Krakow and the former personal secretary of John Paul II, has said that miracles due to the intercession of the late pope have been reported from all over the world.
"France was chosen, perhaps because it is a country from which we didn't expect" a miracle, he said in November.
During his 26-year papacy, Jean Paul II visited France eight times, attempting to awaken the religious spirit in a country where Catholicism has declined.
John Paul II's successor Benedict XVI launched his beatification process in June last year, waiving the customary five-year period before beginning the process.
Mourners at John Paul II's funeral in April had called out for him to be made a saint immediately.
Part of the process being conducted in the former pope's native Poland is due to conclude on April 1.
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AFP 151934 GMT 03 06
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