BOSTON -- A panel of theologians has rendered the healing of a Marshfield man's severe spinal disorder as the miraculous work of Cardinal John Henry Newman, a high ranking British clergyman who died in 1891.

John Sullivan, 69, a deacon and Plymouth district court clerk magistrate, claims the cure for his crippling spinal disorder came as a result of his prayers to Newman in 2001 after an unsuccessful back surgery.

Sullivan started to feel “warmth and tingling” and recovered within four days of praying to the Cardinal, he told the Patriot Ledger.

Sullivan told Catholic officials in England about his healing, which the Boston Archdiocese investigated.

A miracle must be medically verified, instantaneous and inexplicable. It also must be permanent, without any relapses and the result of prayers to a saint or religious figure.

A panel of medical experts concluded that there was no scientific explanation for Sullivan’s healing, and thus cleared the way for Newman’s beatification, the Ledger reported.

In order for Newman to be canonized, he is required to perform another miracle, according to the Catholic magazine America.