Superstitious flock to bleeding Jesus paintings
Pastor Dale Morgan
Superstitious flock to bleeding Jesus paintings*
From correspondents in Port Blair, India
March 21, 2007 08:21pm
Article from: Reuters
THOUSANDS of superstitiuos people are flocking to a policeman's house in
India's remote Andaman Islands to pray in front of two portraits of
Jesus Christ, which are said to have been "bleeding" for the past two
weeks, police and witnesses said.
Eric Nathaniel, a police radio operator, found a red fluid trickling
down a portrait of Jesus in his house two weeks ago which he believed
was blood.
"We lit candles and prayed all night and a little later the red fluid
dried but it soon started trickling down from the hands and heart of
another portrait in the house," Nathaniel said in the islands' capital
Port Blair today.
Officials said red paint used in the portraits could be melting in the
extreme humidity, but islanders and priests were coming in boats from
remote parts of the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago to pray.
One portrait was temporarily moved to the local bishop's house for
public viewing after police found it difficult to control swelling crowds.