People are flocking to a house in Cebu City where an image of the Virgin Mary of Fatima has reportedly shed tears of blood.
Joy Rayla said she was praying the rosary before their altar past midnight yesterday when she noticed “dirt” in the eyes of the one-and-a-half foot statue.
“Tig-rosaryo man gyud ko kada gabii, pero ang perming rosaryohan nako katong gamay nga imahe sa birhen… nanlimbawot akong balahibo pagkakita nako nga naghilak siya og dugo,” she said.
(I pray the rosary every night and I usually pray before the smaller image of the Virgin … I got goosebumps after seeing blood flowing from the image’s eyes.)
Rayla’s sons said they first noticed blood-like stains on the image on Good Friday but they thought it was just a blemish or a discoloration.
Msgr. Antonio Medida, parish priest of the San Lorenzo Ruiz Church in barangay Tisa, visited the house in sitio Kanhai and saw the image.
He reminded people that claims of supernatural occurrences need to be investigated carefully and that the Church undergoes a long process before declaring the authenticity of a “miracle”.
Medida, however, urged people to continue praying to the Blessed Virgin Mary and strengthen their faith in God.
The Catholic Church is usually cautious, even skeptical about claims of bizarre miracles. Stories of icons bleeding tears of blood are not uncommon but and often turn out to be a hoax.
Church officials are also wary of claim of miracles made by persons seeking fame or the result of hallucinations.
Reported cases of weeping statues are most often of the Virgin Mary and are at times accompanied by claims of Marian apparitions.
In The Everything Mary Book: The Life and Legacy of the Blessed Mother by Jenny Schroedel and John Schroedel, only one example of a combined weeping statue and apparition (the Our Lady of Akita) has been approved by the Vatican. The rest have been dismissed as hoaxes.
In the apparitions of Our Lady of Akita, the entire nation of Japan was able to view the tears of the statue on national television.
Family miracle
The Rayla family, however, believes tears of blood were really shed as a miracle meant to bring their patriarch back to the folds of God.
Victor Jude Rayla, 41 said he was a Marian devotee who led the community’s block rosary when he was in his teens. He became a lay minister. But turned his back on the church after he got disillusioned with a fellow lay minister.
Victor Jude said he was playing a card game when his mother, Esther, 62, told him about the crying image.
“Wa man gyud unta ko nituo, pero pagkakita nako nanlimbawot akong balahibo, nagmilagro gyud siguro ang mahal nga birhen,” he said.
Esther said she cried while looking at the image.
“Nakahilak lang gyud ko kay gidungog gyud niya ang akong mga pag-ampo… ang akong pangandoy nga magkahiusa ang tanan nakong anak nga moalagad ug mag-ampo gyud kaniya,” she said.
(I cried because my prayers were answered.)
The Rayla family had bought the religous image from an ambulant vendor three years ago.
Neighbors have asked the family to bring the image to a chapel so other people can see the image and pray before it.
Msgr. Esteban Binghay, episcopal vicar of Cebu’s south parishes, said he heard about the “crying” image but said the claimed phenomenon should be investigated first.
He said he has instructed Msgr. Medida, the parish priest, to observe the situation further.
“We need to really observe over time whether the shedding of blood is frequent, if it really was a phenomenon from God… we need to determine if there’s a message from the Blessed Mother … and it’s also important to examine the blood samples,” he said. /Fe Marie D. Dumaboc, Correspondent