Abraham Soler, a leprosy patient, morphine addict, and blind man, converted to Catholicism and, after his baptism, was freed from the tyranny of drugs. In his book Estoy ciego y nunca vi mejor (“I Am Blind and Never Saw Better”), he recounts his terrible story:
“Six years ago, I was confined in the leper colony on Cerrito Island. I had lost my sight. Tormented by atrocious pain and plunged into spiritual chaos, the doctors watched helplessly as I suffered physically and morally, and they resorted to a heroic yet terrible remedy: morphine. Within a week of daily injections, I became a slave to the drug... For a year and a half I was a poor man tormented by the need to obtain three or four doses of morphine every day.
I lost my willpower, my dignity... But a noble missionary perceived a glimmer of hope in my soul and baptized me...
One night I made the decision to become once again who I had once been, to abandon morphine and become an untiring fighter for our beautiful Christian faith. I had two weapons: my ROSARY and my will.
The doctors told me that the struggle was impossible, that for a morphine addict to abandon the drug, confinement in special sanatoriums under the supervision of neurologists was necessary... but I relied on the words of Jesus Christ, who said: ‘Truly I tell you, your faith has saved you.’ And I made my resolution: I would not inject myself with another single drop of morphine.
If anyone reading this knows medicine, they will understand that what follows can only be attributed to two things: a miracle of the Blessed Virgin and the will of a man who believed blindly in the possibility of a miracle...
Anguish came upon me at the usual hours when I would receive the injections, morning and evening... I fell to my knees and asked the Lord for strength.
When everyone had gone to rest, I took my ROSARY and resolved to fight. I begged the Virgin for mercy and clemency with my most tender prayers, and She heard me.
Seventeen times — I counted them one by one in my anguish — I started toward the room where the nurse was on duty. A single word would have been enough to obtain the injection, for strict orders had been given because no doctor believed success was possible. No one believed that I, a weak creature full of pain, could endure.
But every time I reached the door and was about to call, with that same hand I clutched my ROSARY tightly and prayed it slowly to drive the infernal temptation from my soul.
Seventeen times I prayed the rosary that night, and when at last I threw myself onto the bed, I fell asleep — miraculously asleep.
Then came the days of recovery. I still had isolated struggles, but I overcame them easily. Now, whenever I remember that great trial, the tenderest prayers rise from my soul to thank God and the Blessed Virgin...
When the beads of the old rosary pass through my fingers, I smile: my soul has been filled with peace.”
Abraham Soler has already departed for eternity. This is the testimony of a Hebrew, communist, and drug addict who, through Mary — Refuge of Sinners — became a fervent Catholic devoted to daily Holy Communion.
