A French nun who claims that Pope John Paul II cured her of Parkinson's Disease from beyond the grave has spoken publicly about the "work of God" that could lead to him being set on the road to sainthood by the Roman Catholic Church.

Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre, smiling broadly before a barrage of television cameras today, claims she suddenly lost any symptoms of the debilitating illness and experienced a "second birth" after praying to the late Pope two months after his death.

The Vatican says her testimony could provide evidence of a posthumous miracle which will be enough to earn Pope John Paul II, who died in April 2005, a beatification.

Beatification, which is official recognition by the Catholic Church of a dead person's accession to Heaven, is achieved by one posthumous miracle, while two miracles is enough to earn the title of saint.

“I am cured. It is the work of God, through the intercession of Pope John Paul II,” Sister Marie-Simone-Pierre said, at a press conference at her native Aix-en-Provence.

The nun said that she had been suffering from Parkinson’s — a degenerative disease of the nervous system — since 2001, but that she was suddenly cured on the night of June 2, 2005, after praying to John Paul II, whose final years were marked by the disease.

“I was sick and now I am cured. It’s up to the Church to say whether this is a miracle,” Sister Marie-Simone-Pierre said.

She recounted how, following her prayer, she was suddenly able to write legibly despite previously struggling for months to hold a pen, the disease having progressed to the point that she could no longer control any motion in her hand.

“I came across a sister who had helped me tremendously and I told her as I held up my hand, my left hand, ’look, my hand is no longer trembling’. John Paul II cured me."

She added: “Since then I have not taken any treatment. My life has completely changed — it was like a second birth for me."

The identity of Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre — described by nurses as a "discreet little nun" — was kept secret by the Catholic church for a year while it investigated her dramatic claims, and was finally confirmed on March 23.

The Church revealed that she had grown up as one of five children in a Catholic family in northern France before joining a congregation from Puyricard, near Aix-en-Provence. She has been working as a nurse at a Paris maternity clinic since late 2006.

Despite having 130 other believers' alleged sudden recoveries on its files, the Rome Diocese selected her case ahead of them because it most accurately fits the Catholic Church's description of a miracle.

To qualify as a miracle, any cure has to be sudden, complete and permanent — as well as inexplicable by doctors.

On Monday, Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre will attend a solemn ceremony in Rome marking the second anniversary of John Paul II’s death, when the beatification dossier is to be handed over to the Vatican’s Saint-making body.