In the living room of Julia Bruzzese’s Brooklyn home hangs a photo that captures the moment she says changed everything.

“It was like God extending his hand and saying it would be okay,” she recalled.

That hand belonged to Pope Francis. The moment came during his 2015 visit to New York City—at a time when a then-12-year-old Bruzzese was grappling with a mysterious illness and a crisis of faith.

“Why is this happening to me? Why God did this happen to me?” she remembered asking.

Bruzzese had been a happy, healthy child until she suddenly wasn’t. Her health declined rapidly, and doctors were unable to determine what was wrong.

“I was going from hospital to hospital, misdiagnosed, undiagnosed,” she said.

She relied on a wheelchair, could no longer attend school and her family was left with mounting medical bills and no answers.

“It was a dark and lonely time,” she said.

Everything changed when the principal at her school learned Pope Francis would be visiting the city. Her entire family was given tickets to see him land at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

“It was like a glimmer of hope awakened for us,” Bruzzese said.

Bruzzese was in the front row to greet the pontiff. What she didn’t expect was for him to walk straight toward her.

“I told him, ‘Holy Father, please, can you give me a miracle? Or anything,’” she said.

NY1 was there that day and captured the moment Pope Francis placed his hand on her head, eyes closed, appearing to pray.

The encounter lasted just seconds. But its effect, Bruzzese said, was lasting.

Within a year, doctors finally diagnosed her with chronic Lyme disease. Her family went on to raise more than $130,000 for her treatment through GoFundMe.

“It was a big outpouring of love and support,” she said.

The support and the diagnosis fueled Bruzzese’s mission to raise awareness of chronic Lyme disease. She was featured in a 2018 congressionally mandated report on tick-borne illnesses, traveled to Washington, D.C. to speak with elected leaders and was featured in a documentary about the disease.

Now, Bruzzese is an undergraduate at Long Island University in Downtown Brooklyn with plans to become a doctor.

“I want to help people. I want to help people who are suffering. And suffering in silence,” she said. “It really did. It changed my life.”

The miracle she asked for that day — being able to walk again — hasn’t happened yet. But Bruzzese says the moment with Pope Francis gave her something even more meaningful: purpose.

“If it weren’t for that, I wouldn’t have the desire, the need to help,” she said. “So I do know why. That’s the reason.”