French nun Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre speaks to reporters at the archdiocese of Aix-en-Provence, north of Marseille, southern France. The nun, who claims Pope John Paul II cured her of Parkinson's disease, is to travel to Rome for ceremonies Monday marking the second anniversary of the pope's death and the closure of a church investigation into his life.

Aix-en-Provence, France ? Parkinson’s – the same disease her beloved Pope John Paul II suffered – robbed Sister Marie Simon-Pierre of her ability to walk, drive or even write.

Then, in one night of prayer and mystery the Vatican may accept as the miracle it needs to beatify the pope, the French nun’s symptoms vanished.

“John Paul II cured me,” the 46-year-old nun said Friday, smiling serenely as she spoke for the first time in public about her experience.

“It is difficult for me to explain to you in words : It was too strong, too big. A mystery.”

Described as a gentle, reserved woman who had hoped to keep her identity secret, the nun coped well with the media spotlight.

Only momentarily, when describing how her symptoms worsened after the pope’s death on April 2, 2005, did she lose a little of her poise.

“Please excuse me, I’m a little emotional,” she said.

But many questions remained unanswered – not least whether she herself considers her experience to be miraculous.

That “is for the church to say,” came her firm reply. “All I can tell you is that I was sick and now I am cured.”

The nun said she comes from a family of practicing Catholics in the Cambrai region of northern France. She has four younger sisters and brothers and had always been an admirer of John Paul, who became pontiff when she was 17.

“He was, in a way, my pope, the pope of our generation,” she said.

Exactly two months after his death, on June 2, 2005, the nun said she could bear her worsening illness no more. She told her mother superior that she could no longer do her job at a maternity ward near Aix-en-Provence in southern France.

The mother superior’s reaction was somewhat surprising: She told the nun to write down John Paul’s name on a piece of paper. She did – and it was practically illegible, the sister said.

The Little Sisters of Catholic Maternities, the nun’s community, all prayed together to the late pontiff. After evening prayers, she went to her room. There, she said, an inner voice urged her to write again.

“I wrote a little bit and, upon seeing my handwriting, I said to myself, ‘That’s strange. Your writing is very readable,”‘ she said.

She went to sleep and woke about 4:30 in the morning.

“I bounded out of bed, and I felt completely transformed. I was no longer the same inside,” she said. To a fellow nun, she said, “Look, my hand is no longer shaking. John Paul II has cured me.”

She said she has been medication-free since that day.

“My life has totally changed. For me, it is a bit like a second birth,” the sister said. “I had the impression I was rediscovering my body.”

Before John Paul can be beatified – the last formal step before possible sainthood – the Vatican requires that a miracle attributed to his intercession be confirmed. A second miracle would be needed for sainthood.