The canonization
In 1999, a double miracle happened in São Paulo, capital of the great Brazilian state, which would take Friar Galvão of the Altars of Brazil to the Altars of the whole world. The people responsible for this were Sandra Grossi de Almeida Gallafassi and her son Enzo.
Because of the nature of her uterus, so small that she was incapable of bringing a child to full term, Sandra could not complete any normal pregnancy.
Yet after two previous rejections, she became pregnant for a third time. In spite of an exam that it would be very risky for both mother and child, she decided to maintain her pregnancy. Following advise from relatives, Sandra began using once again the "Pills of Frei Galvão", and made a novena in honor of him.
With the pills and the novena, without the pain and problems of the other times, her pregnancy developed normally until the 32nd week when a caesarian birth took place. She did not suffer anything. The child was born weighing less than 4 pounds and a half pounds, measuring only 17 inches in height, with a respiratory problems of the Hyaline membrane in its 4th stage, the most serious type. Praying once again to Friar Galvão, to the happiness of the family members and the surprise of the doctors, the situation changed quickly for the better and the child was allowed to go home.
The happy ending of this extraordinary case was attributed to the intervention of Blessed Friar Galvão. Ever since the beginning of the pregnancy until the curing of little Enzo, the prayers of Sandra and her family were made with faith, with the certainty that Friar Galvão would continue to help as the Patron Saint of expecting mothers and their babies, a mission that the holy monk had been fulfilling ever since the time when he was alive.
Medical experts for the Roman Congregation of the Causes of Saints approved unanimously the cure as "scientifically unexplainable in its context, according to all current scientific knowledge".
With the approval of this miracle by the Holy See, May 11th, 2007, was marked as the date for the canonization of the holy man from the city of Guaratinguetá - Saint Antônio de Sant'Anna Galvão -, in a Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI, in São Paulo, an exception made by the Holy Father, in homage to Brazil which is the largest Catholic country in the world.
Coming to São Paulo, Aparecida and Guaratinguetá, the birth place which gave to the world and to heaven the first Brazilian saint in her 507 years of existence, the Pope confirmed a prophetic inscription in bronze made in 1939, at the base of a statute of Friar Galvão, at the Franciscan o Convent in the city of Guaratinguetá:
"A Saint is the best present which God can give to the world"