Hundreds are flocking to the apartment of an El Cajon resident who claims that a statue of the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus is miraculously seeping a lavender scented oil.
Magid Asofy, a native Chaldean, told 10 News that the statue was sent to him in Iraq from Greece over ten years ago. He said he brought it with him to his El Cajon residence.
Asofy told 10 News that he believes the event that began May 1 is a miracle, and so are nightly words he hears from Mary at 3 a.m. The man says he has heard from her six times instructing him to invite people to come see the plaque and pray.
Official recognition of this as a miracle by the church may be unlikely.
Joe Nickell, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry investigated a similar case in Union City, California back in 2011. The claim was that mysterious scented oil was being produced from religious statues. There were also of healings by some who had visited the statues. Nickell partnered with another skeptic to investigate the woman’s claims and test the figures that had drawn swarms of from across the globe. Investigators concluded that somebody was putting the oil on the figures.
The St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church declared a Mary statue in the Chicago area a miracle in 1994. The Chicago Tribune reports that the weepy-eyed figure is alleged to seep tears from its eyes, a phenomenon that brings visitors from around the world.
Asofy told 10 News that he has invited his priest to see the phenomenon.
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