(LifeSiteNews) — Brian Middleton is telling the extraordinary story of his saintly daughter who was given nine months to live when she was 16 years old.
“It was like she was born with a PhD in philosophy, theology, and psychology,” Middleton told LifeSiteNews editor-in-chief John-Henry Westen.
“She became the go-to person for her older siblings. The next youngest was, I think, 15 years older than her,” the proud father continued. “But she very quickly became the source of wisdom in our household. It was difficult for me because I realized that I wasn’t the smartest person in the house at that point in time.”
Maria Middleton was diagnosed with a brain tumor at the young age of 16. She did not despair but chose to embrace Christ and offer up her suffering to save souls. Her life seemed to be destined for greatness from the beginning.
When Maria was conceived, her parents were both in their mid-forties and had thought that they “were beyond childbearing years.”
“Maria was very special from the beginning,” Middleton recalled. “In fact, in the beginning, when Susan [Maria’s mother] went to the doctor when we thought that she was pregnant, the doctor said, ‘Don’t tell anybody because it doesn’t look very good.’”
When they came back for another ultrasound a week later, the doctor discovered a “child that didn’t make it.” However, there was another child in its place, which surprised the doctor since he had not seen any sign of twins in the ultrasounds before.
READ: Could this 18-year-old who died of a brain tumor become a saint one day?
“So we just assumed that he missed it, not knowing who we were about to meet,” Maria’s father said.
Despite being extraordinarily smart and holy, Maria was “very normal,” her father said. “One of my favorite Maria quotes in her journal is ‘You don’t have to be weird to be holy,’” he stated. “Maria was a was a holy person, but she excelled in just about everything … whether it be her studies or athleticism, but it never really defined her.”
When Maria was about eight or nine years old, she would have deep theological discussions with a priest that the family knew. “And [the priest] talked about the fact that he felt that in some ways she was his theological peer at that age,” Middleton recalled.
In 2017 Maria was the president of her senior class in 8th grade, and she gave a powerful speech on the values of her classical education at the Regina Academy:
In a world where many teenagers struggle to find real meaning and purpose, we know that purpose in life is to know, love, and serve God so we can all be happy with him in heaven. This understanding calls us to lead others to Him, through our everyday words and actions. Each day we all have the opportunity to evangelize our brothers and sisters through our daily lives.
In early 2019 she was diagnosed with a brain tumor and given nine months to live. Shortly after receiving the diagnosis, Maria said the following words to her father: “No matter the circumstances of my life, my purpose remains the same, that is to know, love, and serve God. Faith is not an emotion. Emotions rise and fall. Faith is a commitment. I will not despair.”
Shortly after Maria received her dire diagnosis, miracles began to happen around her. After hearing about Maria’s fate, the DeSales University lacrosse team dedicated their season to Maria.
“They went to Mass before every game to say prayers for her health,” her father recalled.
The team never had a winning record before, but that season they won the championship.
Maria went on to live longer than the nine more months she was given, and even flew to Uganda with her parents in October 2019.
In 2020, Maria had to go to the hospital, and the family lived there with her for almost five months. Even though she was bedridden and very ill, Maria’s presence began to transform the lives of the hospital staff.
On Good Friday 2020, when it looked like Maria would die, she offered up all her suffering for the salvation of souls. She said, “God will be here soon, either for the miracle or to take me home, but in the meantime, let’s continue to save souls.”
“She was leading people to Jesus into eternity,” Maria’s father said. “The hospital room became a chapel and her bed became an altar of sacrifice. People would actually take breaks and come to Maria’s room and they would pray … All night people would come in [and pray].”
Maria ended up living until a month after her 18th birthday. Thousands of people came to her funeral, as many had developed a devotion to the young, saintly woman.
After her death, Maria’s parents found her diary and were astonished by the contents.
Middleton said that Maria had decided years before she got sick to “turn her life over to the Lord” and “to embrace the suffering and the crosses that would come across her life.”
Maria did not despair because she “knew at her core, her whole identity was that Maria was a child of God.”
“And she knew why she existed. And she existed to know, love and serve God in this world and ultimately to be happy with him in heaven, regardless of the circumstances.”
“She understood that she wasn’t born for this world,” Maria’s father said. “More than anybody that I ever met. And so she didn’t necessarily see suffering as any kind of punishment. She saw it as the reason that she was born. And I think that’s the only explanation for her ability to be united so closely to the Lord.”
The last words Maria wrote in her diary, when she had almost lost the ability to write, were: “Think hope.”
Fittingly, her parents founded the Think Hope Foundation, which aims “to reach people who are on the continuum of despair.”
The Foundation seeks to support organizations that provide Catholic and classical education, help despairing teenagers, and bring hope to businesses.