LACKAWANNA, N.Y. (AP) – A brain-damaged firefighter’s startling burst of memory and speech after a 9½-year silence is being called a miracle by some.

Now those hoping for sainthood for a local priest known as Father Baker are wondering whether it may be the miracle they have waited for.

Donald Herbert’s breakthrough occurred at a nursing home bearing the late priest’s name. That alone is not nearly enough to prove the kind of divine intercession needed to move along the canonization process.

But it has raised questions: Did someone pray to Father Baker on Herbert’s behalf? Does the firefighter’s awakening defy medical explanation?

Monsignor Robert Wurtz, who is leading long-standing efforts to have Rev. Nelson Baker canonized, said Friday he was eager to explore the topic with Herbert’s relatives, who at the moment are requesting privacy.

Right now, “It’s all speculation,” he said.

On Wednesday, Dr. Jamil Ahmed said he had given Herbert a new combination of drugs three months ago that were meant to stimulate neurotransmitters, which brain cells use to communicate with each other.

But even the doctor shared credit with God several times in discussing Herbert’s turnaround.

Another of the firefighter’s doctors, Eileen Reilly, said she considered what happened a miracle.

Herbert, who will turn 44 Saturday, went without oxygen for about 10 minutes in December 1995 after the roof of a burning house collapsed on him. For the last several years, he had been in a near persistent vegetative state, unable to see, speak or move, Ahmed said.

Then suddenly a week ago, Herbert asked for his wife – and spent the next 14 to 16 hours catching up with her, his four sons and friends. Since then, Herbert has had moments of clarity but nothing as dramatic as that first long conversation, his wife, Linda, said Wednesday.

That Herbert received medication could pose an obstacle should Father Baker’s supporters try to convince the Vatican the breakthrough was a miracle, said historian John Koerner. The author of “The Mysteries of Father Baker” said the Vatican has passed on cases where drugs have been present in a healing.

Officials in Rome also would likely wait a number of years to see whether Herbert’s speech continues, he said, and would seek assurances that Baker alone had been asked to intervene. “It can’t be Father Baker, along with say, St. Joseph or St. Jude,” he said.

“The Vatican is very stringent,” Koerner said. “When they look at a miracle there’s a number of things they have to satisfy.”

Pope John Paul II in 1987 named Baker a “Servant of God” in homage to his work with the underprivileged.

It was the first step toward canonization for the priest affectionately known as the “Padre of the Poor” until his death in 1936.

Before he can pass to the next stage, it must be proven that a miracle occurred because someone prayed for Father Baker’s intercession. A second miracle, defined as a physical cure beyond human explanation, must be proven later.

Koerner said the priest had a reputation for bringing people back from the brink of death dating to the early 1880s, including a Corning woman who had apparently died in the snow.

“Stories like this even continue after his death,” he said.

The priest’s remains are entombed inside Our Lady of Victory Basilica in this city near Buffalo, drawing a continuous stream of faithful. The majestic church was Baker’s dream project, built from material imported from all over the world, including lava from Mt. Vesuvius, Italy.