A drowned toddler was near death. Then his parents began the Blessed McGivney novena

(OSV News) -- An Arizona couple whose toddler survived a drowning incident March 2 is attributing his miraculous recovery to intercessions from Blessed Michael McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus, along with a multitude of saints and what they count as thousands of prayers from across the country and the world.

Caitlin and Wesley Robinson of suburban Phoenix told OSV News that at the hospital, doctors tried CPR for 52 minutes to revive their 15-month-old son, Vincent, who had a barely detectable, intermittent pulse since before he arrived. His father said he found their baby face down at the bottom of the family hot tub, which was not turned on.

The Robinsons said once the toddler was stable, Vincent was placed on oxygen, IV pain killers, paralytics and other sedatives. But he was not out of danger.

"Sunday (March 2), Monday, Tuesday we were preparing ourselves for a funeral, really. And so it was three days on our knees and just praying incessantly," explained Caitlin Robinson.

The Catholic couple has eight children between ages 12 years and 15 months -- all of them are named after saints who, Caitlin said, have special significance to the family. Caitlin, now expecting a ninth child, said they started praying for all of these saints' and others' intercession before God.

Caitlin shared they also prayed for the intercession of the departed who are not saints, but whose faith lives have had prominence in the church. Among them was the late Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, whom the Robinsons had met through a family friend, Father Joseph Hamilton, who was a secretary to the cardinal.

The cardinal spent 404 days in prison -- most of it in solitary confinement -- on a charge of child sexual abuse alleged to have occurred in the 1990s, but his conviction was thrown out by Australia's High Court. Its seven justices unanimously concluded "a significant possibility that an innocent person has been convicted" based on weak evidence. Cardinal Pell credited his faith -- and decision to forgive his accusers -- for helping him survive the ordeal, which he chronicled in a diary, while affirming the abuse crisis was a "spiritual and moral cancer" resulting from the church too often not following the teachings of Jesus Christ. At 81, he suffered a heart attack and died Jan. 10, 2023, in Rome after a hip replacement surgery.

The Robinsons prayed for Cardinal Pell's intercession and requested prayers from Father Hamilton, who said he would ask Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher to also pray for Vincent.

When Vincent was rushed to the hospital, Wesley Robinson immediately contacted his wife's brother, Father Dan Connealy, based at a parish in Flagstaff, Arizona, two hours north of Phoenix.

Father Connealy told OSV News he was in shock and had an anxious drive to the Phoenix hospital, trying to steel himself for the funeral Mass that he was certain he would be offering for his baby nephew. But instead, he spent the rest of that first day at Vincent's beside with the family and friends praying. Father Connealy asked his sister if he could contact as wide a network as possible of friends and clergy to pray for Vincent, to which Caitlin Robinson replied yes.

"It was really beautiful ... a vulnerable moment where it's like you can't really process things. Her instinct was like, 'Just get as many people praying as you can,'" said Father Connealy.

Among the people he contacted was a Connecticut-based priest friend, whose sister is Vincent's godmother. The friend sent a first-class relic of Blessed Michael McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus, whose parish was St. Mary's Church in New Haven, where his body is entombed.

Still, Caitlin Robinson was preparing herself for the worst. She said, "I was just so certain that I knew it was God's will that we were going to lose our child and I'm ashamed that I didn't trust more."

But she held fast to a Catholic classic that she read in the hospital about trusting in God's providence.

"We don't actually ask God enough and so when we received the relic of Blessed McGivney I said, 'OK, I'm just going to ask for total and complete healing, and I don't think it's going to work, but I'm going to ask for it and I trust," said Caitlin.

The family said the relic, along with a novena prayer, which they and a sizable network of family, friends and parishioners prayed immediately, arrived on the third day of Vincent's hospitalization. It was Ash Wednesday. They placed the relic on the comatose boy's chest.

By that evening, doctors said the toddler was no longer in the "end of life" stage. The couple said doctors called his turnaround "remarkable."

Caitlin said they placed the relic on a different part of Vincent's body each day of the novena. And each day something remarkable happened. She read from a list that she documented, recounting: an MRI that showed clear images of undamaged organs; the removal of daytime oxygen and the feeding tube without needing to reinstate either; no more fluid in the lungs; Vincent being moved from the pediatric intensive care unit to the regular floor; early on getting up, walking and lifting things; being able to eat regular food and swallowing on his own; and finally, being discharged on the ninth day.

All along the family also sought the intercession of whoever was the saint of the day, and prayed with other relics of saints that started flooding in as the call for prayers spread.

Caitlin Robinson said that on the Tuesday after the drowning, the first responders left a manila envelope at the nurses' station that the couple did not open until they took Vincent home. Inside was a packet for making funeral arrangements.

Wesley Robinson, a 39-year-old mergers and acquisitions attorney, said he had never prayed "so intensely in my life" and that his prayer life changed after this experience.

"I feel like this is a gift and it would be a shame if we waste this opportunity for us and our kids and our community," he said. Robinson said he wouldn't necessarily call it "a wake up call," but reflected miracles serve to "kind of re-energize a community or a person; to kind of re-energize their faith."

"The reality of the church triumphant has never been so clear to us that God actually listens to our prayers like in real time," said Caitlin, 39, referring to the Catholic concept of the church in heaven where the saints who have triumphed with Christ over evil intercede for the church on Earth, so they too can be close to Christ like they are forever.

"We should all be calling on Christ and the saints and the angels," Caitlin said. She added, "Like I said, intellectually we know this, but to feel it in this way, it's just amazing."