Healing / Medical Reversal & Remission

Elder Cowley Healed Instantly of a Serious Physical Ailment Through the Power of the Priesthood

Published March 24, 2026 at 11:07 PM

1940s
New Zealand
Todd Morgan

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Todd Morgan

Beaumont, CA, 92223

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Elder Matthew Cowley recounted a personal experience in which he himself was afflicted with a serious physical ailment while serving in the mission field. A fellow priesthood holder administered to him, and he was healed immediately and completely.

Cowley used this personal experience to bear witness that the gifts of healing were not only for others — those who hold the priesthood and exercise faith can also receive miraculous blessings of healing themselves. He cited it as evidence that the same power that operated in the days of the Apostles of old was still active in the restored Church.

“These are not the dark ages,” Cowley declared. “We have the priesthood of God restored to this earth. God does work through His priesthood. I know that without any question of doubt.”

Sources & References

Matthew Cowley, “Miracles,” BYU devotional address, February 18, 1953: https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/matthew-cowley/miracles/ Research note: no verbatim first-person excerpt is reproduced here because the cited source (Cowley’s February 18, 1953, BYU address “Miracles”) contains no account of Elder Cowley’s own healing; the address recounts only healings he witnessed or performed for others. This account is published pending further research to identify its original source; it may derive from another Cowley address collected in Matthew Cowley Speaks (Bookcraft, 1954) or from Henry A. Smith, Matthew Cowley: Man of Faith (Bookcraft, 1954), neither of which is available in a public archival edition.

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