Candle Mary

This is a few months old but still worth a post
Mari Valenzuela of Alhambra, California made an astonishing discovery when she finished praying the rosary in December. According to the KTLA news website she noticed an image of the Virgin Mary formed in candle wax.

The wax figure is about six inches tall and appears to show a woman kneeling and praying.

Valenzuela showed the figure to her friends and family who say they've never seen anything quite like it form from wax.\

Valenzuela says she doesn't know what to do with the figure but wants to share it with as many people as she can. In the meantime, she's storing it in her refrigerator so it doesn't melt.

Hmm I wonder if she has ever heard of Ebay?

Mary in Newquay

Caroline and Stephen Gray were walking along the coastline near Newquay when they stopped to pose for a series of holiday snaps. But Caroline, 38, was speechless when the couple returned home and studied the digital camera to spot a clear image of the Virgin Mary, which she insists was not present when she took the picture.


She said: ''There was nothing on the screen when I took the original photograph. Then when we got home the image of the Virgin Mary had appeared. ''There was absolutely nobody else on the beach at the time, which makes this all the more intriguing.
''It looks like a pregnant woman and she appears to be holding a lamp. It certainly looks like the Virgin Mary. ''I don't know if it would still be visible if you went there to see it, but I'm sure that won't stop people from trying.''

After a spate of non-religious simulacra it’s good to see a BVM appearance again

Ice Maiden

It's been a while since I had a simulacrum to post (so desperate was I for them that manipulated photos to create some of my own!). However we now have a good one to share.

Jennifer Bloomer of Dearborn Michigan claims to have seen an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM) in a chunk of ice outside of the office formed from the drips of a leaky tap.

"It was crazy," Bloomer said. "We were both like, I can't believe we're seeing this right now. It was really cool."

The ice chunk is being preserved in a freezer on the property.

BVM simulacra seem to be relatively commonplace - or at least not unusual.

Two years ago in February she appeared outside a mobile home in Plymouth, Indiana. The ice formation was discovered at the base of the hitch, frozen to the structure. It gave the appearance of the Virgin Mary with her head bowed and her hands at her chest, clasped in a prayer.

In January 2007, a Morton, Texas, grocery store reported a Virgin Mary ice formation inside its freezer. An employee noticed that water dripping from the ceiling had created the image, and soon believers flocked to the freezer to see it for themselves.

Another recent sighting had nothing to do with ice but did manage to find its way into a refrigerator. Two months ago a California woman said her candle wax had melted in the shape of Mary kneeling and praying. In order to prevent melting and preserve the likeness, she placed it in the fridge.

Well there you have it. Perhaps Dearborn will supplant Lourdes as a pilgrimage site