Trapped Miners

13 miners have been trapped underground in West Virginia, and today one body was found. We still hold out hope for the other 12. Last night my mom and I stayed up 'til 5am waiting on news; it's a story very close to our hearts. Of my 4 great-grandfathers, 3 died of Black Lung from working their whole lives in the PA mines; furthermore, of my multiple great-uncles, even more worked and got the disease. When the Slavs came over to the USA in the early 20th century, many went into the mines like that not fully understanding all the dangers and problems. Anyway, I do pray for these lost miners and I hope you all will too. They could be saved. Back in 1963, 2 miners who were trapped for 14 days were rescued. Partly this had to do with the intervention of Pope John XXIII (who had just died 10 weeks earlier.) The saved miners, who were separated for medical treatment immediately upon getting pulled out of the earth, reported that for 8 days of their confinement, a short fat man appeared in a warm glow of blue light, keeping them warm and also expanding the space around them enough so that they could stand up and walk around (initially, they could barely crouch.) One man was Protestant, and had never seen the dead Pope before. But seeing a photo in the hospital, he recognized the saint, and the other miner did too. Why would these saved men make up such a story after they were pulled out of the ground? And how could their stories match up after being separated? If they were simply hallucinating, how did they see the same thing? Whatever the case, I do pray to both Bl. Pope John to help these men in WV, whether temporally or even after death. I pray to Bl. Padre Pro as well, who loved miners so much during his lifetime that he earned the nickname "little miner."