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A matter of faith: The picture of Divine Mercy that is supposedly bleeding at St Michael's Church, Mahim. PIC/VISHAL KELKAR |
This 'miracle' has seen kilometre-long queues comprising thousands of devotees, who want to be blessed by what they believe is a rare occurrence.
But Father Doneth D'Souza from the church brushed aside all claims of a miracle.
"It's not a blood stain and it's also not a miracle. Every image of Divine Mercy has a red halo around the heart and in this case, the red colour has run because of the moisture in the air. It will look like a blood stain, but it's not," said Father D'Souza.
He said he has not been stopping devotees to the church or revealing the truth behind the 'miracle', "It's a matter of faith. If they believe it's a miracle, let them satisfy themselves," he pointed out.
The stain first became apparent on Friday at 8.30 pm on the occasion of the feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Since then more than in kilometre-long queues, 20,000 devotees across religions have visited the church to be blessed.
Alba Sequeira, a devotee from Andheri said, "The moment I heard about blood dripping from the picture of Divine Mercy, I came running to the church to be blessed. I have been standing in the queue for more than four hours to have a glimpse of the image."
Sister Josefa came to see the 'miracle' from Naigaon.
"This is a miracle, this is God's sign. God wants to tell us something, it all depends on his disciple understands it," she said. Archbishop cardinal Oswald Gracias said, "I visited the image, but we cannot call it a miracle. The picture will be taken down and sent for tests today."
