Hundreds of people have been flocking to a house in a Paris suburb over recent weeks to see an icon of the Virgin Mary “shed tears of oil,” and one visitor even claims to have fallen pregnant shortly after rubbing the oil on her belly, according to the owner.
Esat Altindagoglu said the tears began flowing from the icon hanging in the hallway of his house in Garges-les-Gonesse on Feb. 12 and that some 50 people have been showing up at his door daily since word spread of the “miracle.”
“It’s a small miracle,” he said on Sunday. “This is a message sent by the Virgin and her son.”
Esat’s wife Sevim, also a fervent believer, said she was praying before the icon when “I noticed that she was crying. I said to myself ‘This is not normal.’”
Visitors who come from as far away as Belgium and Germany often bring a small wad of cotton to collect some of the oil from the icon that they believe holds healing powers.
A woman came in mid-February and explained that she was unable to have a child. She took a bit of oil with a hankerchief and placed it on her belly. “Two days ago she called me and said that she could now have a child,” said Sevim.
Over the years there have been hundreds of reported sightings of the weeping Virgin Mary, but so far the only one to receive the Vatican’s seal of approval is Our Lady of Akita in Japan in 1973, with all the rest dismissed as hoaxes.
(AFP WITH STAFF WRITER)
過去幾週來,許多民眾蜂湧至巴黎市郊某戶人家,只為一睹聖母瑪利亞畫像「流下油淚」的神蹟。屋主表示,其中一名訪客甚至宣稱在把油淚塗抹肚皮後,已順利懷孕。
住在賈奇萊貢奈斯市的伊薩•埃爾廷達戈葛盧表示,掛在家中玄關處的聖母瑪利亞畫像二月十二日開始流淚,「神蹟顯現」的消息傳開後,每天都有約五十位民眾到訪。
他上週日表示:「這是個小神蹟。這是聖母和耶穌傳遞的訊息。」
伊薩的妻子賽薇姆也是虔誠教徒,她說她當時正在畫前祈禱,「一發現聖母像流淚,我告訴自己:『這非比尋常』。」
從比利時和德國遠道而來的訪客往往會隨身攜帶一小坨棉球,以便採集「油淚」。他們深信「油淚」具有療效。
賽薇姆表示,二月中有名婦女來訪時說她一直無法懷孕,她用手帕取了一點油塗抹在肚皮上,結果「兩天前她打電話跟我說她懷孕了」。
過去這幾年,有關目睹聖母瑪利亞流淚的傳聞不可勝數,但到目前為止,梵蒂岡教廷正式承認的神蹟只有一九七三年發生在日本的「秋田聖母瑪利亞」事件,其餘則都被視為無稽之談。
(法新社╱翻譯:林倩如)
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