Russian Miracle Baby or Skin Disease?

well since i know russian ill translate the the points tht were missed out......the news report says tht the kid gets very high fever before geting the markings and his body temperature reaches 40c....(note such temperature is very dangerous and can lead to death.)

if this is real it only confirms satans existence, i doubt a real god would put such suffering on a small baby.

Morda8 U ARE A DISBELIEVER! ALLAH CAN DO WHICH HE PLEASES TO ANYTHING! WHO BRINGS DEATH AND LIFE, TO PEOPLE? ALLAH DOES! SO HE CAN GIVE A BABY A FEVER!

Ali Sina,

I can see now why Muslims hate you so much...

... because you can see right through them. LOL

Just be very extra careful man.

Muslims are always desperate to justify their Quran as the literal words of the Creator and would go to ridiculous extent toward that goal. If anything it shows their deep down doubts. I remember the Muslim claim that the astronaut Armstrong heard the Muslim call to prayer on the moon and Jacques Cousteau heardg the same at the bottom of some ocean he was studying. As would be expected they were hoaxes and this should prove no different.
Secondly Muslims believe in Jinn or evil spirits and have many rituals to exorcise those spirits. Why they assume this is from Allah and not from the Jinn? Thirdly what do those verses say and how relevant is that to humanity?

Hi Allahisthegreatest

I own a cat and I can do anything with him also. But what would you think of me if I torture him? Would a good person do evil things?

In the despotic countries dictators do as they please. Does this permit them to do evil?

Yes Allah can do anything he pleases, but the fact that he chooses to do evil proves that he is evil. This is the evidence that Allah is not God but Satan.

hold your horses.
this boy has skin disease,or skin writing illness,medically called DEMOGRAPHIA.
GOOGLE DEMOGRAPHIA SKIN

This is a proof that Allah is the most evil entity. He is torturing an innocent child to show a claimed miracle. Isn't Allah a false god? How can Muslims take this as a miracle, and ignore that their Allah is causing extreme pain to a child? Either this miracle is a hoax, showing how Muslims lie, or not a hoax, showing that Allah is a sadist entity, a most evil entity indeed. Allah, to put a Christian phrase on it, is the Devil incarnate. Peace to all, especially gullible Muslims out there.

Mufti,

Don't tell me the parents are scribing a dull object on the child's skin? No way man. Muslims will never do such a thing. Muslims are very loving and caring people. Are you insane accusing these Muslim parents of child abuse?

Muhammad said love your children and marry them to an old man at the age of six. Nowhere in the Quran said to scribe Quranic verses on a skin of a child. Only the original first copy of the Quran holds the divinity as a book to be written down on a live human being using a red hot iron. Well, actually, Muhammad needed 900 Jewish men including children to write the whole Quran on human skin. Unfortunately, the skin around the head was very difficult to make a flat writable surface, so bless his compassionate heart, he didn't use the heads of those Jews.

#1,

Totally agree!

Dr. Sina....AGREE...

I wonder if the parents are doing it to get money....hmmm...you never know what these insane cats will do for attention!

If God wanted to perform a miracle by using a baby...it would be something wonderful like....making a deaf/Deaf baby hear...the blind ones see....not by receiving a fever and suffering to show satanic script...bunch of stupid ass idiots for holding on to this sick ideology!

FREEDOMFIGHTER69 MY BAD 67..69 MOE&AISHA.
IN islam the whole nine yards is halal,the muslim doctors has no ethics what so ever,they care less about the hippocratic oath,lying is a must for muslims,to please muhammad and his pimp allah,by fasting ramadan their sins will be swept away,lying in islam is considered jihad,jihad stops when they go to bed or back to their caves,as in afghanistan.
i wonder if you read about the BADER battle ,muhammad and his bloody fighters against the Quraish tribe of mecca,the story goes like this that allah send a battalion of angels under the command of spiderman JIBREEL to fight on the side of the muslims,these angels were riding on white horses and wearing a yellow turbans on their head,at the end of the battle the muslims plus the angels managed only to kill 70 men from Quraish tribe,the question is ,why angels needs to ride horses?they got wings attached to their bodies so they can fly and they can maneuver best for fighting ability,like superman of the movies,have you ever seen superman riding a horse?!?and only nanaged to kill 70 men!!allah,s angels either they are lazy fighters or islam is a fraud,i leave it to you to guess. i call on muslims to stop killing man,kill allah instead,and join the club of humanity,i know my wish is a far fetched dream,but dreams are better than nightmares,salute.

Lets take a pig and tatoo that Muhammed was devil, and also tatoo allah was garbage.
Also we can take a dog or monkey and tatoo that God made muhammed dog/monkey/pig. muhammed will be born as pig again and again and his followers will kill the pigs as per his wish.
This video will be a hit in madrassa and more jihadists will be produced to die for allah. muslims are miracle hungry and they even after knowing that its a hoax will believe it.

To Allahisthegreatest
Comment ID #28871

If allah can do anything what it can then, why it cant provide his proof of existence by say dropping millions of 'koran from heavan', causing a thunder and forcing infidels to muslims. By making muslims win wars when infidels defeating them in israel, iraq, kuwait, afghanistan, pakistan etc. But wait , he/she cant.
Also on a daily basis , he is mocked in internet forums, Books, movies etc but allah is hiding in some corners and fearing what he shall do?

I am surfing the Internet and see this story has been reported by thousands of sites, some of which considered to be mainstream and major sites like ABC news, Ruiter, Mail online, etc.

I read some of the comments and see how Muslims are cheering and others scratching their heads. Someone even said this is the proof and he is now a Muslim after seeing this "miracle"

I think we should spread this article and bust the bubble of these gullible Muslims before many of them volunteer to become jihadis.

Thank you Mufti for the tip.

Ali Sina ,

Have you been there to check if it is real or the mother or any person is doing it to the baby ?

You must read the news carefully , it said the infant had many disease but he recovered miraclously without any treatment !

READ :
from http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=108768&sectionid=3510212

"The TV channel reported that Ali was first diagnosed with "ischemic heart disease of the second degree" and "infantile cerebral paralysis" in the maternity clinic. However, after the inexplicable events began happening, he was examined again and found healthy "

I DO NOT THINK THE MOTHER CAN TREAT ALL THAT !!!

I am a scientist , I believe in science and proof , not in BS !

Doctor Sabrina Clarke, What you are trying to say , You mean to say , ALLA is boasting , "Allah is the creator of all entities"

hey mr.ali sina

u are a cruel man who can do this to other people belief.....

it seems u are'nt a muslim before......

but christian undercover.........

n u changed to atheis...cz u afraid many muslims want to kill u...

u are sucks.....

may allah s.w.t give u an punishment for yours...

ALLA must me a child , he always tells in 3rd person. If I want to say about myself , I will say "I am a good man :)" , " I did this, I did that etc " , I will not say , ARP is a good man, Arp did this, ARP did that.

My niece used to say like this when she was 3 years old . If she wants water , she would not ask - I want water,
She would say , XXXX wants water, XXXX wants to go out , etc So I think ALLA has 3 year old Brain only. Poor ALLA

I see..
you will put every LIE here
that exist out your pocket
even that lie is deep in muddy,
you will stick your hand there..
just to make justifie your Lies whith another Lies.
to Wipe the Sign that can't be from hand of man kind

I dont expect to Believe you the sign of Allah(God)
and ISLAM Religion
from those who spend life in lies
those lies who takes from their
Parents and grand parents etc.
and Generations before them.

the Videos in youtube.com
and the photos
make clear for those who thinks whith clear mind
i dont hawe time to crack my head here with you
bikes i know, that will extend till
Judgment day.

My question to muslim why allah choose a 9 months old baby to boosts his presence through extensive painful way that this baby is suffering.If allah thought it is high time to reveal himself why he didn't it more glorious way so that all the kafir in the world see the virtue and mercy of allah and turn to him. Why he is punishing a innocent baby to boosts his presence.If it is miracle then why some peoples skin show English writing and various graphs.If one's skin show a writing that ''Allah is devil and Muhammad is his agent'' isn't will be a miracle?Then will you abandon islam?You are miracle hungry stupid any one can cheat you in the name of miracle.

Stigmata are bodily marks, sores, or sensations of pain in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus. The term originates from the line at the end of Saint Paul's "Letter to the Galatians" where he says, "I bear on my body the stígmata of Jesus" - stigmata is the plural of the Greek word στίγμα, stígma, a mark or brand such as might have been used for identification of an animal or slave. An individual bearing stigmata is referred to as a stigmatic.

Stigmata are generally claimed to be of divine origin, although the view of what causes it varies from person to person. Stigmata are primarily associated with the beliefs and practices of the Catholic Church. Many reported stigmatics are members of Catholic religious orders. The majority of reported stigmatics are female. [1]
Contents
[hide]

* 1 History
* 2 Description
* 3 Famous stigmatics
* 4 Scientific research
* 5 Non-Christian stigmata
* 6 References
* 7 External links

[edit] History
A depiction of St. Francis receiving the stigmata by Cigoli.

The first well-documented case and the first to be accepted by Church authorities as authentic, was that of Saint Francis of Assisi (1182–1226), who first experienced stigmata in La Verna, Italy, in 1224.[2]

In the century after the death of St. Francis, more than 20 additional cases of stigmata were
eported. Stigmata have continued to be reported since, with over 300 cases by the end of the of the 19th century.[1][3]

19th century.[1][3]

In the 20th century, the number of cases increased dramatically; over 500 cases have now been recorded. In modern times, increasing numbers of ordinary people, in contrast to the usual mystics or members of religious orders, have begun to report stigmata. Although rarer, cases have also been reported among non-Catholic Christians,[4] including a young Baptist girl.[5]

The first written record of a woman to have received stigmata is in the Medieval Codex Iuliacensis, circa 1320–1350, reporting the stigmata of Blessed Christina von Stommeln (d. 1312), whose relics rest in the Propsteikirche in Jülich, near Aachen.[6] It is claimed that one can still see marks from the crown of thorns on Bl. Christina's skull, which is publicly displayed during the octave beginning every 6 November in Jülich.
[edit] Description
Wiki letter w.svg This section requires expansion.

Cases of stigmata take various forms. Many show some or all of the five Holy Wounds that were, according to the Bible, inflicted on Jesus during his crucifixion: wounds in the hands/wrists and feet, from nails, and in the side, from a lance. Some stigmatics display wounds to the forehead similar to those caused by the crown of thorns. Other reported forms include tears of blood or sweating blood, wounds to the back as from scourging, or wounds to the shoulder as from bearing the cross. In addition, in some cases lashes on the back can be witnessed.

Some stigmatics claim to feel the pain of wounds with no external marks; these are referred to as invisible stigmata. In other claims, stigmata are accompanied by extreme pain. Some stigmatics' wounds do not appear to clot, and stay fresh and uninfected. The blood from the wounds is said, in some cases, to have a pleasant, perfumed odour, known as the Odour of Sanctity.

Individuals who have obtained the stigmata are many times described as ecstatics. At the time of receiving the stigmata, they often have a mystical experience or a vision of Christ. In more recent times an individual’s stigmata is reported to heal within a few hours of its reception. Blood pours from the individual’s wounds for unspecified amounts of time and suddenly dries up, and the wound is healed. Some individuals with stigmata in the past sought medical attention, but neither remedies nor medical treatment of any other sort could cure their wounds. Stigmatics, such as St. Francis, were affected by the stigmata for an extended period of time; however, the wounds never rotted or possessed a rank odour or became infected[7]. Reported stigmatics are usually devout Catholics. The wounded area is most likely to heal in less than two hours, leaving no mark or trace of a wound, although there are other cases where the stigmatic wounds last for several years.
[edit] Famous stigmatics

* Saint Francis of Assisi (1181-1226)
* Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)
* Saint Rita of Cascia (1381-1457)
* Blessed Lucia Brocadelli of Narni (1476-1544)
* Saint John of God (1495-1550)
* Saint Catherine of Ricci (1522-1590)
* Saint Marie of the Incarnation (1566-1618)
* Saint Veronica Giuliani (1660-1727)
* Sister Therese Margaret
* Saint Faustina Kowalska (1905-1938)
* Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824)

* Louise Lateau (1850-1883)
* Maria Theresa Chiramel (1876-1926)
* Saint Gemma Galgani (1878-1903)
* Saint Pio of Pietrelcina (aka Padre Pio; 1887-1968)
* Therese Neumann (1898-1962)
* Marthe Robin (1902-1981)
* Zlatko Sudac (born 1971)
* Haile Selassie (of the Rastafari religion)

[edit] Scientific research

Modern research has postulated stigmata are of hysterical origin,[8] or linked to dissociative identity disorders,[9] especially the link between dietary constriction by self-starvation, dissociative mental states and self-mutilation, in the context of a religious belief.[10] Anorexia nervosa cases often display self-mutilation similar to stigmata as part of a ritualistic, obsessive compulsive disorder. A relationship between starvation and self-mutilation has been reported amongst prisoners of war and during famines.[11][12][13]. A psychoanalytic study of stigmatatic Thérèse Neumann has suggested that her stigmata resulted from post-traumatic stress symptoms expressed in unconscious self-mutilation through abnormal autosuggestibility.[14]

In his Stigmata: A Medieval Phenomenon in a Modern Age, Edward Harrison suggests that there is no single mechanism whereby the marks of stigmata were produced. Harrison found no evidence from a study of contemporary cases that the marks were supernatural in origin. However marks of natural origin need not be hoaxes, he concluded. Some stigmatics marked themselves in attempt to suffer with Christ as a form of piety. Others marked themselves accidentally and their marks were noted as stigmata by witnesses. Often marks of human origin produced profound and genuine religious responses. Harrison also noted that the male to female ratio of stigmatics, which for many centuries had been of the order of 7 to 1, had changed over the last 100 years to a ratio of 5:4. Appearance of stigmata frequently coincided with times when issue of authority loomed large in the church. What was significant about stigmatics was not that they were predominantly men, but that they were non-ordained. Having stigmata gave them direct access to the body of Christ without requiring the permission of the church through the Eucharist. Only in the last century have priests been stigmatized.[15]

From the records of St. Francis’ physical ailments and symptoms, Dr. Edward Hartung concluded in 1935 that he knew what health problems plagued the holy man. Hartung believed that he had an eye ailment known as trachoma, but also had quartan malaria. Quartan malaria causes the liver, spleen, and stomach to be infected, causing the victim intense pain. One complication of quartan malaria occasionally seen around Francis’ time period is known as purpura. Purpura is a purple hemorrhage of blood into the skin. Purpuras usually occur symmetrically, which means each hand and foot would have been affected equally. If this were the case of St. Francis, he would have been afflicted by ecchymoses, an exceedingly large purpura. The purple spots of blood may have been punctured while in the wilderness and therefore appear as an open wound like that of Christ.[16]
[edit] Non-Christian stigmata

Mystical contemplation can induce bodily stigmata in any meditative tradition, which need not necessarily be Christian.

* Among the Waraw of the Orinoco Delta, a contemplator of tutelary spirits may mystically induce the development of "openings in the palms of his hands."[17] These tutelary spirits are presented by the "itiriti snake." Francis of Assisi was said to be endowed with his stigmata by a seraph. A seraph (an angelic being with three sets of wings) is literally translated as "burning one," however "srap" is a word associated with snakes; and so, some mistake seraphim as serpent guardians (a mistaken connection to the "itiriti snake").[citation needed]
* Among the Mapuche of south-central Chile, where a machi (mystic) may contemplate a filew (helper-spirit), there was a case of a "girl who had a machi calling but who was being punished by her filew because she had not yet been initiated. The girl’s feet bled with open sores, and she went into an altered state of consciousness frequently and uncontrollably for hours on end."[18]

[edit] References

1. ^ a b Poulain, Augustin (1912). "Mystical Stigmata". The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14294b.htm. Retrieved 2009-05-18.
2. ^ "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: St. Francis of Assisi". http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06221a.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-02.
3. ^ "The Stigmata : a history of various cases (1883)". London : Thomas Richardson. http://www.archive.org/details/thestigmata00gorruoft.
4. ^ "www.livingmiracles.net". http://www.livingmiracles.net/Stigmata.html. Retrieved 2008-07-02.
5. ^ Armando R. Favazza MD MPH [1]Bodies Under Siege: Self-mutilation and Body Modification in Culture and Psychiatry (2nd ed. 9 May 1996), p. 44, The Johns Hopkins University Press, ISBN 978-0801853005
6. ^ "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Blessed Christine of Stommeln". http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03724a.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-02.
7. ^ http://www.crystalinks.com/stigmata.html
8. ^ Thurston, Herbert (2007-02-01). The Physical Phenomena of Mysticism. Roman Catholic Books. ISBN 1929291914, 9781929291915.
9. ^ Wilson, Ian (1991-03-28). The bleeding mind. Paladin. ISBN 0586090142, 9780586090145.
10. ^ Daniel Fessler (2002). "Starvation, serotonin, and symbolism. A psychobiocultural perspective on stigmata". Mind and Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences. Mind and Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences 3 (2): 81-96. http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/faculty/fessler/pubs/FesslerStigmata.pdf. Retrieved 2009-09-12.
11. ^ Yaryura-Tobias, Jose A.; Fugen A. Neziroglu, Steven Kaplan (1995). "Self-mutilation, anorexia, and dysmenorrhea in obsessive compulsive disorder". International Journal of Eating Disorders 17 (1): 33-38.
12. ^ Curtin, A. P. (1946). "Imprisonment under the Japanese". BMJ 2 (4476): 585-586. doi:10.1136/bmj.2.4476.585. ISSN 0959-8138. http://www.bmj.com/cgi/reprint/2/4476/585. Retrieved 2009-09-12.
13. ^ The biology of human starvation. University of Minnesota Press. 1950.
14. ^ Albright, M. (2002). "The Stigmata: The Psychological and Ethical Message of the Posttraumatic Sufferer". Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Thought 25 (3): 329–358.
15. ^ Harrison, Ted (1994-10). Stigmata: A Medieval Phenomenon in a Modern Age. St Martins Press. ISBN 0312113722.
16. ^ "Medicine: St. Francis' Stigmata". Time. 1935-03-11. ISSN 0040-718X. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,883261,00.html. Retrieved 2009-09-14.
17. ^ Johannes Wilbert : Warao Basketry. OCCASIONAL PAPERS OF THE MUSEUM OF CULTURAL HISTORY, University of California at Los Angeles, No. 3, 1975. pp. 5-6
18. ^ Ana Mariella Bacigalupo : Shamans of the Foye Tree. University of Texas Press, Austin, 2007. p. 88

[edit] External links

* Stigmata of St Gemma Galgani
* Autobiography of a Yogi/Chapter 39: Therese Neumann, the Catholic Stigmatist of Bavaria Paramahamsa Yogananda meets Therese Neumann
* DERMATLAS JHU: Stigmata
* Stigmata page on Catholic.org

* Carroll, Robert Todd, The Skeptics Dictionary, Wiley, 2003.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigmata"
Categories: Stigmatics | Catholic spirituality | Christian mythology | Miracles
Hidden categories: Articles to be expanded from June 2008 | All articles to be expanded | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements from October 2009
Views

* Article
* Discussion
* Edit this page
* History

Personal tools

* Try Beta
* Log in / create account

Navigation

* Main page
* Contents
* Featured content
* Current events
* Random article

Search

Interaction

* About Wikipedia
* Community portal
* Recent changes
* Contact Wikipedia
* Donate to Wikipedia
* Help

Toolbox

* What links here
* Related changes
* Upload file
* Special pages
* Printable version
* Permanent link
* Cite this page

Languages

mystical experience or a vision of Christ. In more recent times an individual’s stigmata is reported to heal within a few hours of its reception. Blood pours from the individual’s wounds for unspecified amounts of time and suddenly dries up, and the wound is healed. Some individuals with stigmata in the past sought medical attention, but neither remedies nor medical treatment of any other sort could cure their wounds. Stigmatics, such as St. Francis, were affected by the stigmata for an extended period of time; however, the wounds never rotted or possessed a rank odour or became infected[7]. Reported stigmatics are usually devout Catholics. The wounded area is most likely to heal in less than two hours, leaving no mark or trace of a wound, although there are other cases where the stigmatic wounds last for several years.
[edit] Famous stigmatics

THE So called miracle are not only found among muslim .Nearly every religion have a lot of miracles.Christian have Marian apparition,Vision of Jesus Christ,Stigmata and many others.Muslim have Quranic verses on various object.Hindus have talking Idols,Idols that drink milk,it was found in India which make a vast sensation among Hindus.Also Hindus have dreaming apparition of their various Gods.Miraculous healing,alive the dead person any many other miraculous activity are claimed done by the Pentecostal denomination of Christian Church.So my question to muslim which religion are true ? Infact every religion have Miracle

VISION OF JESUS CHRIST AN VIRGIN MARY

Since the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ in Calvary until today, a number of people have claimed to have had visions (and indeed personal conversations) with Him and with the Virgin Mary in person. Discussions about the authenticity of these visions have often invited controversy. The Catholic Church endorses but a fraction of these claims, yet some of these visionaries have received beatification and some have achieved sainthood.

The very first visions of Christ, and personal conversations with Him, after His Resurrection and prior to His Ascension were recorded by the apostles in the Bible. One of the most widely recalled Resurrection appearances of Jesus is the doubting Thomas conversation (John 20:24-29) between Him and Saint Thomas the Apostle after His death. The last book of the Bible itself is simply based on a series of visions. In the Book of Revelation the apostle Saint John the Divine recorded visions that became part of the New Testament.
The Incredulity of Saint Thomas by Caravaggio.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Acceptance and impact
o 1.1 Vatican guidelines
o 1.2 Controversies
o 1.3 Impact
o 1.4 Pilgrimages
* 2 Predictions
* 3 Visions by the early saints
* 4 19th Century visions
* 5 20th Century visions
* 6 Living visionaries
* 7 Categories of visions
o 7.1 Visions vs dictations
o 7.2 Physical marks
o 7.3 Physical contact
o 7.4 Physical artifacts
o 7.5 Unreported visions
* 8 Similar and interlinked visions
* 9 Notes
* 10 Sources and External links

[edit] Acceptance and impact
[edit] Vatican guidelines

The Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican has a published and detailed set of steps for “Judging Alleged Apparitions and Revelations" that claim supernatural origin. These criteria may be used to declare a vision as invalid, or they may declare that the vision does not, for the moment, seem contrary to the doctrines of the Church, allowing Catholics to follow a devotion to the vision, without providing an official endorsement from the Vatican.

After some time and detailed examinations, the Holy See has, however, recognized a few post-Ascension conversations with Jesus as valid. For example, in his 1928 encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor Pope Pius XI stated that Jesus Christ had "manifested Himself" to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque in the 17th Century. The encyclical refers to the conversation between Jesus and Saint Margaret several times. The Vatican biography of Saint Teresa of Avila clearly refers to her gift of interior locution and her conversations with Jesus. The Vatican biography of Saint Juan Diego discusses his conversation with the Virgin Mary. The Vatican biography of Saint Faustina Kowalska goes further in that it not only refers to her conversations with Jesus, but quotes some of these conversations.

As a historical pattern, Vatican approval seems to have followed general acceptance of a vision by well over a century in most cases. For instance, the reported visions of Jesus and Mary by Benoite Rencurel in Saint-Étienne-le-Laus in France from 1664 to 1718 were only recognized by the Holy See in May 2008, making them the first Marian apparitions and visions of Jesus to be approved in the 21st century. According to Father Salvatore M. Perrella of the Mariunum Pontifical Institute in Rome, this is the 12th Marian apparition approved by the Holy See from a total of 295 that have been studied through the centuries.[1][2][3][4]
[edit] Controversies

Many visions of Jesus following His Ascension have been reported after the Book of Revelation was written. But the Book of Revelation itself specifically mentions the case of “false prophets” (Rev 19:20) and undoubtedly not everyone claiming to converse with Jesus can be believed. Over the years, a number of people claiming to converse with Jesus for the sake of monetary gain have been exposed. A well-known example was the Charismatic Protestant televangelist Peter Popoff who often claimed to receive messages from God to heal people on stage. Popoff was debunked in 1987 when intercepted messages from his wife to a small radio receiver hidden in his ear were replayed on the Johnny Carson national television show.

The Catholic Church has, at times, taken a harsh view of some people who have claimed religious visions. In December 1906, during the reign of Pope Pius X the former Polish nun Feliksa Kozlowska became the first woman in history to be excommunicated by name as a heretic. Some visions of Jesus have simply been classified as hallucinations by the Church, while in a few cases the Church has chosen to remain silent on the authenticity of claimed visions.
[edit] Impact

Despite the expected controversies (and the somewhat regularly appearing imposters), the post-Ascension visions of Jesus and the Virgin Mary have, in fact, played a key role in the direction of the Catholic Church, e.g. the formation of the Franciscan order and the devotions to the Holy Rosary, the Holy Face of Jesus and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The feast of Corpus Christi, the first papally sanctioned universal feast in the Latin Rite, was established due to visions of Jesus reported by Saint Juliana of Liege, an Augustinian nun. Key elements of modern Roman Catholic Mariology have been influenced by visions reported by young children on remote hilltops such as Lourdes and Fatima.
Blessed Mary of the Divine Heart.

Reported messages from Jesus have also influenced papal actions and encyclicals. For instance, the 1899 consecration of the word to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Pope Leo XIII in the encyclical Annum Sacrum (which entered new theological territory by consecrating non-Christians) was due to the messages from Jesus reported by a nun, Blessed Mary of the Divine Heart. Pope Leo XIII performed the requested consecration a few days after the death of Sister Mary and called it "the greatest act of my pontificate".[5]

Some visions have helped maintain the strength of the Catholic Church through the centuries before being accepted by the Vatican. For instance, Saint Juan Diego's reported vision of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico in 1531 was instrumental in adding almost 8 million people to the ranks of Catholics between 1532 and 1538, right in the midst of the Protestant Reformation of 1521 to 1579 which saw a large number of people leave the Catholic Church in Europe. The fact that Juan Diego was declared venerable only in 1987 is an example of how some visions strengthen the Church long before the Vatican takes a position on their authenticity.
[edit] Pilgrimages

Churches built based on reported visions of Jesus and Mary attract many millions of pilgrims each year. According to Bishop Francesco Giogia the top three most visited Catholic shrines in the world are vision based, in that with about 10 million pilgrims, in 1999 the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City was the most visited Catholic shrine in the world, followed by San Giovanni Rotondo in Italy and Our Lady of Aparecida in Brazil, each with about 6 to 7 million pilgrims per year.[6][7] Given about 5 million visitors per year to Our Lady of Lourdes and 4 million to Our Lady of Fátima, as well as other shrines such as Medjugorje, the major vision based churches receive over 30 million pilgrims per year.[8]

The visual effect of these pilgrimages can be striking, for instance, every year on May 13 and October 13, the significant dates of Fatima apparitions, pilgrims fill the country road that leads to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima with crowds that approach one million on each day.[9]
[edit] Predictions

Some of the reported visions of Jesus simply fade away by virtue of predictions that fail to materialize. On the other hand, some predictions based on visions continue to gather interest decades after they were made.

Messages from Jesus reported by John Leary in Rochester New York in 1999 had predicted that Pope John Paul II would be forced out of Rome and sent into exile amid chaos. Bishop Mathew Clark of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester disallowed these messages at the time, but with the election of Pope Benedict XVI the debate about the validity of these messages seems to have simply ended.
The House of the Virgin Mary on Ephesus, Turkey.

The visions of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, written by Klemens Brentano in 1852, led a French priest Abbé Julien Gouyet to discover a house near Ephesus in Turkey in 1881. This house is assumed by some Catholics and some Muslims to be the House of the Virgin Mary. Since Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich had never been to Ephesus some people view this discovery as a prediction. The Holy See has taken no official position on the authenticity of the discovery yet, but in 1896 Pope Leo XIII visited it and in 1951 Pope Pius XII initially declared the house a Holy Place. Pope John XXIII later made the declaration permanent. Pope Paul VI in 1967, Pope John Paul II in 1979 and Pope Benedict XVI in 2006 visited the house and treated it as a shrine.

On August 19, 1982, some teenagers in Kibeho, Rwanda reported visions of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ, as Our Lady of Kibeho. The teenagers reported truly gruesome sights such as rivers of blood and the visions were accompanied by intense reactions: crying, tremors, and comas. Some today regard the visions as an ominous prediction of the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, and particularly in that specific location in 1995 in which some of the teenagers died a decade after their vision. The apparitions were accepted by the local Roman Catholic bishop (accused by many of complicity in the genocide himself), but have not been given final approval by the Holy Office.[10][11][12][13]

On September 11 1991, ten years to the day before the famous event, the visionary Vassula Ryden wrote in her notebook a message that she attributed to Jesus: "the earth will shiver and shake - and every evil built into Towers will collapse into a heap of rubble and be buried in the dust of sin! above, the Heavens will shake and the foundations of the earth will rock!" Some of Vassula's followers view this sentence as a prediction. Her notebooks were published as a series of books “True Life in God” in the 1990's and have a strong following worldwide.
[edit] Visions by the early saints
Saint Francis of Assisi embracing Christ on the Cross, by Murillo, 1668.

The Bible includes primarily pre-Ascension visions of Jesus, except for the vision of Christ by Saint Stephen just before his death (Acts 7:55), the road to Damascus voice heard by Saint Paul and the conversation between Jesus and Saint Ananias in Damascus in which Saint Ananias is ordered to heal Saint Paul (Acts 9:10-18).[14][15] The Damascus appearance is the last reported vision of Jesus in the Bible until the Book of Revelation was written. However, in the following centuries, many saints reported visions of both Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary.

In 1205, while praying in the Church of San Damiano just outside Assisi, Saint Francis of Assisi reported a vision in which an image of Jesus came alive and told him: "Francis, Francis, go and repair My house which, as you can see, is falling into ruins." This vision lead Saint Francis to renounce the outlook of his merchant family, embrace poverty and form the Franciscan order. For several centuries thereafter, the Franciscans became a key force in the renewal of the reach of Christianity. During another vision in 1224 Saint Francis reportedly received the very first recorded case of stigmata.

Starting in 1208, Saint Juliana of Liege had visions of Christ which she kept a secret for almost 20 years. In these visions she was reportedly told to institute a solemn feast for the Blessed Sacrament as the Body of Christ. When she eventually reported her visions to her confessor, the information was relayed to the bishop. Years later, in 1264, Pope Urban IV (who was formerly the Archdeacon of Liege) formally declared the feast of Corpus Christi for the whole Latin Rite, as the first papally sanctioned universal feast for the Latin Rite.[16]

In 1251 the English Carmelite priest Saint Simon Stock reported a vision of the Virgin Mary at Cambridge England. According to Saint Simon, in this vision the Virgin Mary had a scapular in her hand and told him: "whoever dies in this garment, will not suffer everlasting fire.” Saint Simon instituted the confraternity of the Brown Scapular. Also known as the Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the brown scapular is perhaps the best known, and most widespread of all small scapulars.
Saint Catherine of Siena, Doctor of the Church by Tiepolo, c. 1746

In her early life, Saint Catherine of Siena was a withdrawn Dominican tertiary who lived, fasted and prayed at home in Siena Italy. In 1366, when she was 19 years old she reported her first vision of Jesus after which she started to tend to the sick and the poor. In 1370 she reported a vision in which she was commanded to abandon her life of solitude and to make an impact on the world. She corresponded with Pope Gregory XI and other people in authority, begging for peace and for the reformation of the clergy, writing over 300 letters. Her arguments, and her trip to Avignon, eventually became instrumental in the decision of Pope Gregory XI to return the Avignon Papacy to Rome where she was summoned to live until her death. She is one of only three female Doctors of the Church.

In 1372 Saint Julian of Norwich was on her deathbed and had been given her last rites when she reported a series of visions of Jesus, followed by a sudden recovery. Almost twenty years later she wrote about these visions in her book “Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love” perhaps the first book in the English language written by a woman, presumably because she was unfamiliar with Latin. Her book mentions her illness and her recovery as she saw the shining image of Christ. The sixteen revelations start with the crown of thorns and proceed through the death of Jesus, ending with His resurrection and how Christ still dwells in the souls of those who love Him. She is also celebrated in the Anglican Church.
Our Lady of Guadalupe.

In 1531, Saint Juan Diego reported an early morning vision of the Virgin Mary in which he was instructed to build an abbey on the Hill of Tepeyac in Mexico. The local prelate did not believe his account and asked for a miraculous sign, which was later provided as an icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe permanently imprinted on the saint’s cloak where he had gathered roses. Over the years, Our Lady of Guadalupe became a symbol of the Catholic faith in Mexico. By 1820 when the Mexican War of Independence from Spanish colonial rule ended Our Lady of Guadalupe had come to symbolize the Mexican nation. Today it remains a strong national and religious symbol in Mexico.

On St. Peter's Day in 1559, Saint Teresa of Avila (Teresa de Jesús) reported a vision of Jesus present to her in bodily form. For almost two years thereafter she reported similar visions. In some visions she suffered bodily pain which led to the motto often associated with her: "Lord, either let me suffer or let me die." Saint Teresa’s visions transformed her life and she became a key figure in the Catholic Church eventually being recognized as one of only three female Doctors of the Church. One of her visions is the subject of Bernini's famous work The Ecstasy of St Theresa in the basilica of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome.

In the early 17th century, Venerable María de Jesús de Ágreda reported a number of mystical experiences, visions and conversations with the Blessed Virgin Mary. She stated that the Blessed Virgin had inspired and dictated passages in the book Mystical City of God as a biography of the Virgin Mary. The book Mystical City of God is still frequently studied in college and university programs of Spanish language and culture. However, the book (which makes a number of somewhat unusual claims) has remained controversial within the Roman Catholic church, having been banned and restored a number of times, and her process of beatification (started in 1673) has not been completed.[17][18]

From 1673 to 1675, Saint Marguerite Marie Alacoque recalled a series of visions of Christ speaking to her. In December 1673 she reported that Jesus permitted her to rest her head upon His heart, and then disclosed to her the wonders of His love. This led her to the founding of the Devotion of the Sacred Heart. Initially, her life, actions, beliefs and writings became the subject of extreme scrutiny by the Catholic Church. However, she was eventually declared a saint in1920 and the Feast of the Sacred Heart is now officially celebrated 19 days after Pentecost.

At her profession as a Capuchin Poor Clare nun in 1678, Saint Veronica Giuliani expressed a great desire to suffer in union with the crucified Jesus for the conversion of sinners.[19] Shortly after that time she reported a series of vision of Jesus and the Virgin Mary that lasted a number of years. She reported a vision of Christ bearing His cross and of a the chalice symbolizing the Passion of Christ. On Good Friday 1697 she received the five wounds of Christ as stigmata.[20]
[edit] 19th Century visions
Secondo Pia's 1898 negative of the image on the Shroud of Turin, used in the devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus.

Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich was an Augustinian nun who lived from 1774 to 1824 in Germany. She was bed ridden as of 1813 and had visible stigmata which would reopen on Good Friday. She reported that since childhood she had visions in which she talked with Jesus and the Holy See later came to accept her claims. In 1819 the poet Klemens Brentano, was inspired to visit her and began to write her visions in his words, with her approval. In 1833, after her death, the book “The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ” was released by Brentano and was used in part by Mel Gibson for his movie The Passion of the Christ in 2003. In 1852 the book “The Life of The Blessed Virgin Mary” was published. Anne Catherine’s visions allegedly led to the discovery of the house in which the Virgin Mary lived in Ephesus Turkey prior to the Assumption of Mary. She also had visions of the future Catholic Church being undermined by political forces and Freemasonry from within the Catholic Church's own hierarchy. The remedies she saw for the protection of the Catholic Church were the Holy Rosary and Eucharistic Adoration.

In 1843 Sister Marie of St Peter, a Carmelite nun in Tours France reported visions of conversations with Jesus and the Virgin Mary in which she was urged to spread the devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus, in reparation for the many insults Jesus suffered in His Passion. This resulted in The Golden Arrow Holy Face Devotion (Prayer). The devotion was further spread from Tours partly by the efforts of the Venerable Leo Dupont (also called the Apostle of the Holy Face) and influenced Saint Therese of Lisieux.

In 1858 Saint Bernadette Soubirous was a 14 year old shepherd girl who lived near the town of Lourdes in France. One day she reported a vision of a miraculous Lady who identified Herself as the Virgin Mary in subsequent visions. In the first vision she was asked to return again and she had 18 visions overall. According to Saint Bernadette, the Lady held a string of Rosary beads and asked Saint Bernadette to drink water from the spring nearby and to request that the local priests build a chapel at that site of the visions. Eventually, a number of chapels and churches were built at Lourdes as the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes - which is now a major Catholic pilgrimage site. One of these churches, the Basilica of St. Pius X can accommodate 25 thousand people and was dedicated by the future Pope John XXIII when he was the Papal Nuncio to France.

In 1899 Saint Gemma Galgani reported a vision of Jesus after which she experienced recurring stigmata. She reported the vision as follows: “At that moment Jesus appeared with all his wounds open, but from these wounds there no longer came forth blood, but flames of fire. In an instant these flames came to touch my hands, my feet and my heart.” Thereafter she reported receiving the stigmata every week from Thursday night to Saturday morning, during which time she also reported further conversations with Jesus. The Congregation of Rites has yet refrained from making a decision on her stigmata.
[edit] 20th Century visions
Saint Faustina's Divine Mercy vision (as painted by Adolf Hyla). The Polish text at the bottom reads: "Jesus I trust in you".

The Franciscan Italian priest Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina reported visions of both Jesus and Mary as early as 1910. For a number of years he claimed to have experienced deep ecstasy along with his visions. In 1918, while praying in the Church of Our Lady of Grace he reported ecstasy and visions which this time left him with permanent and visible stigmata, the five wounds of Christ. The stigmata remained visible on his hands and feet for the next fifty years. Padre Pio was examined by many physicians, none of whom could offer an explanation for the fact that his bleeding wounds were never subject to infection.

The visions of the Virgin Mary appearing to three shepherd children at Our Lady of Fátima in Portugal in 1917 were declared "worthy of belief" by the Catholic Church in 1930 but Catholics at large are not formally required to believe them yet. However, four popes, i.e. Pope Pius XII, Pope John XXIII, Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II have supported the Fatima messages as supernatural. Pope John Paul II was particularly attached to Fátima and credited Our Lady of Fátima with saving his life after he was shot in Rome on the Feast Day of Our Lady of Fátima in May 1981. He donated the bullet that wounded him on that day to the Roman Catholic sanctuary at Fátima, in Portugal.

The Holy See has, at times, reversed its position on some visions. In 1931 Saint Faustina Kowalska reported visions of a conversation with Jesus when she was a simple Polish nun. This resulted in the Chaplet of Divine Mercy as a prayer and later an institution which was condemned by the Holy See in 1958. However, further investigation resulted in her beatification in 1993 and canonization in 2000. Her conversations in Jesus are recorded in her diary, published as "Divine Mercy in My Soul" - passages from which are at times quoted by the Vatican. Divine Mercy Sunday is now officially celebrated as the first Sunday after Easter.

On the first Friday in Lent 1936, Sister Maria Pierina De Micheli, a nun born near Milan in Italy, reported a vision in which Jesus told her: “I will that My Face, which reflects the intimate pains of My Spirit, the suffering and the love of My Heart, be more honored. He who meditates upon Me, consoles Me”. Further visions reportedly urged her to make a medal with the Holy Face. In 1958, Pope Pius XII confirmed the Feast of the Holy Face of Jesus as Shrove Tuesday (the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday) for all Roman Catholics.

From 1944 to 1947 the bed ridden Italian writer and mystic Maria Valtorta produced 15,000 handwritten pages of text that she said recorded the visions of her conversations with Jesus about His life and the early church. These handwritten pages were characterized by the fact that they included no overwrites, corrections or revisions and seemed somewhat like dictations. The fact that she often suffered from heart and lung ailments during the period of the visions made the natural flow of the text even more unusual. These pages became the basis of her book The Poem of the Man God. The position of the Catholic Church with respect to her book is unclear and subject to varying interpretations. The Holy See does not endorse the book, but no longer forbids it. Since 1992 the Holy See has chosen to remain silent on its position with respect to the work.

Some people who are said to have received interior locutions or messages from Jesus prefer not to discuss them in detail. For instance, while the Vatican biography of Mother Teresa of Calcutta refers to her interior locutions and messages from Jesus, she often referred to them in terms of a “call within a call” and seemed to wish to remain private about them.
[edit] Living visionaries

Among recent visions, the reported apparitions of The Virgin Mary to six children in Međugorje in 1981 have received the widest amount of attention. These messages are published and distributed worldwide and often emphasize five key elements: Daily prayer of the Holy Rosary, Fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays, Daily reading of the Bible, Monthly Confessions and Holy Communion. The messages of Our Lady of Međugorje have a very strong following among Catholics worldwide. The Holy See has never officially either approved or disapproved of the messages of Međugorje, although both critical and supportive documents about the messages have been published by various Catholic figures.

The visions and conversations with the Virgin Mary reported in 1973 in Japan by Sister Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa as Our Lady of Akita were approved in an unusually rapid form by the Vatican.[21] For several decades, Agnes Sasagawa had encountered many health problems but her health reportedly improved after drinking water from Lourdes. After going totally deaf, she went to live with the nuns in the remote area of Yuzawadai, near the city of Akita. In 1973 she reported messages from the Virgin Mary, as well as stigmata. According to EWTN, in June 1988 Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, gave definitive judgement on Our Lady of Akita events and messages as reliable and worthy of belief.[22]

As recently as 1985 other people such as Vassula Ryden have recorded their conversations with Jesus in their books, resulting in interest, discussion and controversy. Ryden’s reported conversations with Jesus are published in a series of books called “True Life in God” and have been translated to over 40 languages by volunteers worldwide. The discussion on Vassula Ryden within the Holy See seems to be oscillating back and forth. Ryden’s notebooks were initially criticized by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in a 1995 notification. In July 2004 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) wrote a letter that effectively reversed that situation. Yet a new letter written on January 25, 2007 by Cardinal William Levada advised against her prayer groups and stated that the writings of Ryden were neither private revelation, nor of divine origin but only personal reflections of Ryden. Ryden’s supporters and detractors seem to selectively read the Vatican letter that suits them best.

In the book Visions of Jesus Phillip Wiebe chronicled the stories of 30 people from truly diverse backgrounds who claim to have had recent conversations with Jesus. Wiebe analyzed these claims from multiple perspectives, including hallucinations, dreams and real visions.
[edit] Categories of visions

Visions of Jesus and Mary may be categorized based on their similarities and differences with respect to specific criteria.
[edit] Visions vs dictations

Some visionaries merely report conversations and images while others also produce large amounts of handwritten notes that seem like dictations. Maria Valtorta and Vassula Ryden each produced thousand of pages of text that they directly attribute to Jesus. Maria Valtorta and Vassula Ryden both reported their writings as the dictations of Jesus, and not their own words. On the other hand, while Saint Julian of Norwich wrote a book based on her reported visions, the book was written twenty years after her first vision and she did not declare it to be a dictation. At the other end of the spectrum is the case of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich who narrated her messages to Klemens Brentano, who later used his words to write them. Another case was that of Sister Consolata Betrone who would repeat her reported conversations with Jesus to her confessor Father Lorenzo Sales. After her death, Father Sales wrote the book "Jesus Appeals to the World" based on her reported messages.[23][24]

Visions should also be differentiated from interior locutions in which inner voices are reported, but no visual or physical contact is claimed. For instance, the messages written by Father Stefano Gobbi for the Marian Movement of Priests are reported as interior locutions rather than visions.

There have been other mystics who have produced large volumes of text, but considered them meditations rather than visions or interior locutions. For instance, the Venerable Concepcion Cabrera de Armida's over 60,000 pages of text were never represented as visions, but as her own meditations, often in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, during Eucharistic Adoration.
[edit] Physical marks
A young Padre Pio with stigmata

Some visionaries report receiving physical signs on their bodies as they experience visions. Saint Francis of Assisi was one of the first reported cases of stigmata, but the best known recent example is another Franciscan (in fact a Capuchin) Saint Padre Pio. Interestingly, among the many Catholic orders, Franciscans have reported proportionally higher ratios of stigmata [12].

Padre Pio's stigmata persisted for over fifty years and he was examined by numerous physicians in the 20th century, who confirmed the existence of the wounds, but none of whom could produce a medical explanation for the fact that his bleeding wounds would never get infected. His wounds healed once, but reappeared [13]. The wounds were examined by Luigi Romanelli, chief physician of the City Hospital of Barletta, for about one year. Dr. Giorgio Festa, a private practitioner also examined them in 1920 and 1925. Professor Giuseppe Bastianelli, physician to Pope Benedict XV agreed that the wounds existed but made no other comment. Pathologist Dr. Amico Bignami of the University of Rome also observed the wounds, but could make no diagnosis [14].
[edit] Physical contact

Some visionaries have reported physical contact with Jesus. The Bible suggests that post- Resurrection (yet pre-Ascension) physical contact with Jesus is possible, for in John 21:17 Jesus told Saint Mary Magdalene: ”Don’t touch Me for I have not yet ascended to the Father”. In John 20:27 Jesus ordered Saint Thomas the Apostle: “Put your hand into My side”. But the Bible does not mention if Saint Thomas followed that command. Interestingly, in a reported “vision of a vision” on August 9th 1944 the Italian mystic Maria Valtorta wrote in her notebook that Saint Thomas did obey Jesus that day and that in her reported vision of that incident physical contact took place. Saint Marguerite Marie Alacoque reported putting her head on the heart of Jesus, while Maria Valtorta wrote that she had put her head on His shoulder.
[edit] Physical artifacts

Some visionaries produce artifacts based on their reported visions, although this is rare. A well known example is the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe which is reported to have been miraculously imprinted on the cloak of Saint Juan Diego.
[edit] Unreported visions

Some visions remain partially reported, or unreported. For instance, Saint Juliana of Liege kept her reported visions of Christ a secret for almost 20 years and then revealed some of them to her confessor. Years later, her visions were the subject of the papal bull Transiturus de hoc mundo which established the feast of Corpus Christi. However, in the meantime, due to a conflict with a local church official, she was driven out of Liege and lived in seclusion at Fosses-la-Ville until she died. On her deathbed she asked for her confessor, supposedly to reveal to him some secrets regarding her visions. But neither he nor any of her friends from Liege arrived and other secrets regarding her visions remain unknown.[25]
[edit] Similar and interlinked visions

The case of Saint Juan Diego's vision in 1531 is somewhat similar to the case of Saint Bernadette Soubirous's vision in 1858. Both saints reported a miraculous Lady on a hill who asked them to request that the local priests build a chapel at the site of the vision. Both visions included a reference to roses and led to large churches being built at the sites. Like Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico, Our Lady of Lourdes is a major Catholic symbol in France.

Some of the visions of Jesus and Mary are related among visionaries in different ages. For instance, in the 1980s Vicka Ivankovic and Marija Pavlovic two of the visionaries in Međugorje both stated that the Virgin Mary told them that the visions reported in the 1940s by the Italian mystic Maria Valtorta of her conversations with Jesus are authentic. Hence if and when the Holy See selects a position on Medjugorje, it may also be viewed as having selected a position on the work of Maria Valtorta.
[edit] Notes

1. ^ Vatican News on Benoite Rencurel http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/avantgo/new.php?n=12546
2. ^ Catholic News on Benoite Rencurel http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=27848
3. ^ Catholic News http://catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=12546
4. ^ Catholic News http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=12588
5. ^ Catholic encyclopedia [1]
6. ^ Zenit News [2]
7. ^ Pilgrims to Our Lady of Guadalupe [3]
8. ^ Sacred Destinations [4]
9. ^ Trudy Ring, 1996, International Dictionary of Historic Places, ISBN 9781884964022 page 245
10. ^ Our Lady of Kibeho Our Lady of Sorrows
11. ^ EWTN on Our Lady of Kibeho [5]
12. ^ Kibeho article
13. ^ UN Report on Kibeho [6]
14. ^ Bible gateway Acts 7:55 [7]
15. ^ Bible gateway Acts 9:10-18 [8]
16. ^ Phyllis Jestice, Holy people of the world Published by ABC-CLIO, 2004 ISBN 1576073556 page 457
17. ^ The Cambridge history of Spanish literature By David Thatcher Gies, Cambridge University Press, 2004 ISBN 0521806186 page 157
18. ^ Mary for Evangelicals By Tim S. Perry, InterVarsity Press, 2006 ISBN 083082569X page 228
19. ^ Catholic encyclopedia [9]
20. ^ Michael Freze, 1993, Voices, Visions, and Apparitions, OSV Publishing ISBN 087973454X page 38
21. ^ Our Lady of Akita [10]
22. ^ EWTN on Akita approval [11]
23. ^ Michael Freze, 1993, Voices, Visions, and Apparitions, OSV Publishing ISBN 087973454X
24. ^ Father Lorenzo Sales, 1955 Jesus Appeals to the World: From the Writings of Sr. Consolata Betrone Alba House Publishers ISBN 0818900695
25. ^ Barbara R. Walters, 2007, The Feast of Corpus Christi, Penn State Press, 2007 ISBN 0271029242 page 11

[edit] Sources and External links

* Franciscan Archives on St. Francis of Assisi
* Vatican Biography of St. Teresa of Avila
* St. Julian of Norwich at the Julian Site
* Poem by St. Julian of Norwich at the Vatican
* Vatican Biography of St. Juan Diego
* Vatican Biography of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich
* Vatican Biography of St. Faustyna Kowalska
* St. Faustyna Kowalska’s Diary
* Vatican Biography of Mother Teresa of Calcutta
* Oxford University Press: Visions of Jesus.
* True Life in God Association
* A critical view of Vassula Ryden's writings
* Maria Valtorta Official Site
* The Maria Valtorta Web-Ring
* Valtorta Medjugorje confirmation
* Marian Movement of Priests
* Divine Mercy Organization
* Saint Juan Diego
* Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich

* Saint Marguerite Marie Alacoque
* Blessed Consolata Betrone
* Saint Bernadette Soubirous
* Padre Pio Devotions
* Mother Teresa
* Međugorje Official Website
* Giga Catholic Information

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visions_of_Jesus_and_Mary"
Categories: Jesus | Jesus and history | Roman Catholic Church | Visions of Jesus and Mary
Views

* Article
* Discussion
* Edit this page
* History

Personal tools

* Try Beta
* Log in / create account

Navigation

* Main page
* Contents
* Featured content
* Current events
* Random article

Search

Interaction

* About Wikipedia
* Community portal
* Recent changes
* Contact Wikipedia
* Donate to Wikipedia
* Help

Toolbox

* What links here
* Related changes
* Upload file
* Special pages
* Printable version
* Permanent link
* Cite this page

Powered by MediaWiki
Wikimedia Foundation

* This page was last modified on 13 September 2009 at 19:39.
* Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details.
Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
* Privacy policy
* About Wikipedia
* Disclaimers

Who ever writes evil and Satanic phrases will be severely punished. You know who you are!!! some of you made up Islamic names and comented, I know al of you are Satan followers and you are all Zionists. You all know Islam is the true Religion, and there is Only One God and Muhammad(PBUH) is his messenger. the truth can never be hidden. No matter how much you try to spread wrong and false messages about our peaceful true religoin . you can never win, because we have the Almighty God who is with the believers, and we have his help. And He takes care of this true religions and the holy book Quran. Islam will always be shining. It is the true religon. Its funny because you are doing wrongs to your planes, YOu know WHY?? Because you write Rubbish messages, and when people read it, it puts people in thinking if its true or not. They go to Libraries, and find more details, thats why they all covert to Islam, because the beatifull verses of the QUran touches their hearts, and they find out the truth. Thats why they're are milloins of people around the world who are converting to islam because thy don't follow the internet. They go to Mosques and find out information from a knowlegible person. Because everyone knows the websites are not accurate. So like I said, you will never go forward with your Satanic Plans. You will nevr win. All of you who are satan followers and write false about the true Religion Islam will be punished severly, and you know who You are. Allah is with those who are clean at heart. those who follow Him Only, and believe all the prophets, the holy book, the angels and the judgement day.

Hello Blogger Friend,

Your excellent post has been back-linked in
http://hinduonline.blogspot.com/

- a blog for Daily Posts, News, Views Compilation by a Common Hindu
- Hindu Online.

OUR LADY OF ZEITOUN, ZEITOUN, EGYPT

Our Lady of Zeitoun, Also known simply as El-Zeitoun, Zeitun or rarely Our Lady of Light, was a mass Marian apparition that occurred in the Zeitoun district of Cairo, Egypt, over a period of 2-3 years beginning on April 2, 1968. Reported to have been seen by millions.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Apparition
* 2 Criticisms
* 3 See also
* 4 Further Reading
* 5 References
* 6 External links

According to eye witnesses, the Virgin Mary appeared in different forms over the Coptic Orthodox Church of Saint Mary at Zeitoun for a period of 2-3 years beginning on April 2, 1968[1]. The apparitions lasted from a few minutes up to several hours and were sometimes accompanied by dove-shaped luminous bodies. They were seen by millions of Egyptians and foreigners, including Copts, Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Jews and people of no particular faith. The sick and blind are said to have been cured, and many people converted to Christianity as a result.

The Pope of Alexandria Kyrillos VI appointed a committee of high-ranking priests and bishops to investigate the matter, headed by Bishop Gregorios, bishop of postgraduate studies, Coptic culture and scientific research. On May 4 the Coptic Orthodox Pope of Alexandria in Cairo issued an official statement confirming the apparitions. They were also confirmed by the Jesuit Father Dr. Henry Habib Ayrout, and by Rev. Dr. Ibrahim Said of the Protestant Evangelical Ministries. Nuns of the Society of the Sacred Heart also witnessed the apparitions and sent a detailed report to the Vatican, resulting in the arrival of an envoy on April 28 who also saw the apparitions and sent a report to Pope Paul VI.

The apparitions were also witnessed by President Gamal Abdel Nasser, and captured by newspaper photographers and Egyptian television. Investigations performed by the police could find no explanation for the phenomenon. No device was found within a radius of fifteen miles (24 km) capable of projecting the image, while the number of photographs from independent sources suggests that no photographic manipulation was involved.[2] A New York Times article dated from May 1968 by Thomas Brady notes that some Arabs believed that the apparition of St. Mary was a sign that God had witnessed the Israeli presence in Israel.

Marian apparitions are events in which the Virgin Mary is purported to have supernaturally appeared to one or more persons, typically but not always Christians. They are often given names based on the town in which they were reported, or on the soubriquet which was given to Mary on the occasion of the apparition, or on her reported clothing and hairstyle. They have been interpreted as psychological (pareidolia), and as religious phenomena, occasionally as theophanies. Apparitions sometimes recur at the same site over an extended period of time. Marian apparitions sometimes involve statues or images of Mary; of particular note are weeping statues, witnessed as producing tears.
[edit] Criticisms

The reports that the apparition was seen by millions are unsubstantiated. Thousands were said to have flocked to the Church after the first announced occurrences of the phenomenon. This dwindled to hundreds as time went by and interest waned. Other sources estimate the figure at around 100,000 in total. Since sightings of the apparition were quite sporadic by all accounts, the number of people who actually saw something could be expected to be considerably smaller. This is corroborated by the fact that there are only a handful of photographs of the phenomenon in existence, mostly taken by a single individual, Wagih Rizk Matta in 1968[3].

No evidence has been provided that the photographs themselves have been investigated and authenticated by international experts as genuine and not the subject of photo manipulation. In fact, there is no indication as to whether original photographs and negatives are still in existence and available for inspection.

The Francis Johnston publication has no attribution for the photographs on pages 15 to 18 apart from a broken link to a GeoCities web-site. There are some instances where images that are presented as photographs are in reality paintings that were created from impressions of observers of the phenomenon. For example, on page 30 of the Pearl Zaki publication where the image is not annotated or attributed. This picture of the Virgin Mary as she allegedly appeared and transfigured outside the south eastern dome has been drawn by Dr. Labib Shenouda, a doctor of Alexandria[4].

The New York Times published a story on May 5, 1968[5] (about five weeks after the first reported sighting) stating that:

“However, the Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria, Pope Kyrollos VI, did not attend the news conference and his signature was not on a mimeographed document circulated to newsmen. The document said the reported appearances at the Church of the Virgin in the Zeitoun District of Cairo had been witnessed by 'thousands of Egyptians and foreigners'. Only the words 'papal residence' appeared at the foot of this statement. One clergyman said Pope Kyrollos had signed the original document 'but another said that Kyrollos would not like to announce anything until it had been verified'.”

There is no record that Pope Kyrillos, head of the Coptic Church in Alexandria, ever visited the Church of Saint Mary in Zeitoun up to his death in 1971, to personally view the phenomenon.

The same New York Times article by Thomas Brady also mentions that there was some controversy about the phenomenon:

“Since then the church has become the object of nightly vigil by thousands of Cairenes, with the standard accompaniment of popcorn and chick-pea vendors, and there have been repeated but somewhat contradictory report[sic] of appearances.”

Cynthia Nelson [6] was an outstanding professor of anthropology at AUC (American University in Cairo) and the founding director of the Institute of Gender and Women's Studies. She visited the church site on several occasions including April 15, 1968, another week later near the end of April and on June 1, 1968. Despite the accounts of ongoing, if irregular, visitations by the Marian apparition, Cynthia Nelson documents seeing nothing other than a few 'intermittent flashes of light' [7].

Cynthia Nelson and others [8] have put the Mary apparition in its context. The appearances came at a period of crisis in Egyptian history:

“Following Egypt’s defeat in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, disillusionment with the performance of Nasser’s regime set in. A wave of religiosity swept through Egypt, encompassing both Muslims and Christians. Claims that the Virgin Mary had appeared above the Cathedral of Zeitoun came alongside a widespread feeling that the defeat was the result of having abandoned faith in favor of human-made ideas and belief systems.”

Mary's coming coincided with the return of veiling, the sprouting of beards, and the other signs of the Islamist renaissance. She helped to cement the advent of spiritual over secularist politics.

Canadian neuro-psychologist Michael Persinger of Laurentian University and his American colleague John Derr (1989)[9] analyzed seismic activity in the region from 1958 to 1979, and found an unprecedented peak in earthquakes during 1969. They state that:

“Temporal analyses were completed between the occurrence of intense displays of exotic luminous phenomena over a church in Zeitoun (Egypt) during the years 1968 through 1969 and regional seismicity. These phenomena, viewed by thousands of onlookers, began one year before an unprecedented increase (factor of 10) in seismic activity about 400 km to the southeast. Monthly analyses also demonstrated a moderate (0.56) correlation between increases in seismicity and the occurrence of luminous phenomena during the same or previous month. These results were interpreted as further support for the hypothesis that most anomalous (terrain-related) luminous phenomena are generated by factors associated with tectonic strain.”

Earthquake lights, although as yet without a rigorous scientific explanation, have been observed in other parts of the world[10].

Sociologists Robert Bartholomew and Erich Goode offer the Zeitoun apparitions as a prominent case of mass delusion:

“It appears that the Marian observers were predisposed by religious background and social expectation to interpreting the light displays as related to the Virgin Mary.”[11]

The reports of often fanatical religious witnesses who see their favourite saints in vague and ambiguous light patterns are examples of pareidolia, a psychological phenomenon.
[edit] See also

* Marian apparitions
* List of Marian apparitions
* Saint Mary

[edit] Further Reading

* Youssef G. Kamell/ John P. Jackson/ Rebecca S. Jackson (1996): A Lady of Light Appears in Egypt. The story of Zeitoun. St. Mark's Avenue Press.
* Père Francois Brune (2004): La Vièrge de l'Egypte. L'incroyable apparition de Marie à des millions d'Egyptiens. Editions Le jardin des Livres.
* Articles "Caire III - Caire X", in: Laurentin, René / Sbalchiero, Patrick (eds.)(2007): Dictionnaire des "apparitions" de la Vierge Marie. Fayard.

[edit] References

1. ^ Francis Johnston (1980). When Millions Saw Mary. Augustine Publishing Co. ISBN 0-85172-631-3 online
2. ^ Pearl Zaki (1977). Our Lord's Mother visits Egypt. Dar El Alam El Arabi. online (excerpt)
3. ^ Wagih Rizk Matta photographs online
4. ^ Drawing by Dr. Labib Shenouda online
5. ^ New York Times articles on Zeitoun apparitions online
6. ^ Biography of Cynthia Nelson online
7. ^ The Virgin of Zeitoun. Worldview Magazine, Volume 16 No. 9 September 1973 online
8. ^ Unfulfilled Promises. N Guenena and N Wassef, page 7 online
9. ^ Derr, J.S., & Persinger, M.A. Geophysical variables and behavior: LIV. Zeitoun (Egypt) apparitions of the Virgin Mary as tectonic strain-induced luminosities. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1989, 68, 123-128. online
10. ^ A video taken 30 minutes before the Sichuan earthquake in China on May 12, 2008 online
11. ^ Mass delusions, Highlights from the Past Millennium, Zeitoun, Egypt, 1968-1971 online

[edit] External links

* Zeitoun Web Gallery
* Saint Mary Church Zeitoun

I am quite amazed by these photos. Is this skin writing for real or this is a trick? Hope it doesnot cause any any skin infections.

Ash is a typical brain-dead muslim.Frog within a well.

H72A1M1 virus aka HAM virus,
(full name Houri72Allah1MadMo1 virus) is a virus which attacks & disturbs the minds of affected people in such a way that they can not use it in future in a constructive & logical way. It has affected some 20% humanity now which has become scourge of this world.

H1N1 virus is much milder if compared to H72A1M1 virus. What do you think Ash ?

#27,

LOL

Murtad....very good points...LOOOOONG, but good!

As for this Dr. Sabrina lady....were you there? Even if they are real, how the hell can you even think anything good is coming from it? Stupid liberal apologist! You're a woman...don't be stupid and apologetic to this cult...go to Saudi for a week and REALLY live like a Muslima! Then and then my dear sister will I listen to your garbage, but I doubt you'd have any after living like a true Muslima....it is people like you who make it hard for women to get out of their situations cuz you choose to be gullible and apologetic...I was there...now, I'm not so I don't give into their trickery...you weren't there either so how dare you say such a thing to Dr. Sina...pics lie, too! dumb ass!

Sorry, guys....I didn't mean to be so rude to this lady, but the lies of Islam are being exposed and I know from experience that it is us western women who have been and are apologetic to this cult...been there, done that and finally woke up and moved on...hopefully Dr. Clark will, too! I will educate, but I have no sympathy for the stupid! She has ears and eyes but refuses to hear and see! If she were to live like a true Muslima for a few days...let us see how she interprets this "miracle"...yeah, miracle/rather, curse from hell!

sometimes my skin are too itchy and i can write anything is this miracle too or only skin problem, and to those apologetic westerner you are traitor, you dont know the true islam. ahs leave islam like we do and find the true beauty of life, islam is a big fat lie.

DR.Ali Sina:; good day to you sir.
we are all in the same boat,you command and the rest of us steer,s the boat.
i became aware of this hoax a week ago,the news was all over arab networks,cable and in print.
i tried to correct this fraudulent story by sending comments to arab news paper,you guess it no one of them posted my comments,muslims are beasts , islam is a form of cannibalism,in iraq the muslims are munching and crunching each other,the great muslim dictatar IDI AMIN of uganda ate human flesh and the liver of men and women.this is halal in islam,but eating pork meat is haram,go figure this bloody cult.
no thank you doctor for giving us some room on your site to relieve some stressand the best is yet to come with the end of islam,ni ifs and buts about it ,peace upon you ..................................and curse on MuhaMAD.
to ash you are an ash hole.
if i crack open your head,i will find two shrinking testicles and a peanut,no brain activity you nuts and nutz.
join humanity drink a beer then piss on muhaMAD the pedophile pigs urine and blood on him.

Dear all non-Muslim brothers and sisters,
I am a proud muslim and my religion teaches me to treat others and their ideas with great respect.I have noticed the harsh,sarcastic and obscene language used by non-muslims which is very shameful.This is what happens when a person leaves spirituality and becomes an athiest.Just look at the type of laguage you people are using against Islam.Is that all what humanity teaches you?Even we,muslims,whom you think are bloody liars,are better than you ethically.Mufti said in his previous message "and curse on MuhaMAD.
to ash you are an ash hole.
if i crack open your head,i will find two shrinking testicles and a peanut,no brain activity you nuts and nutz.
join humanity drink a beer then piss on muhaMAD the pedophile pigs urine and blood on him."

All is clear now.Your mouths are dripping with hatred against Islam,your words show bias and prejudice.In this matter,we muslims have shown how our religion teaches us good character and we are best nation of all times.

hi

Umair Ahsan - Are you reading Qurand or some other book for your spiritual enhancement, My brother, I read the following peaceful suras , It clearly tells how muzzies should live with Non-muslims (Unbelievers as per The Pimp ALLAH).

009.005
YUSUFALI: But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, an seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war); but if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practise regular charity, then open the way for them: for Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.
PICKTHAL: Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.
SHAKIR: So when the sacred months have passed away, then slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush, then if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, leave their way free to them; surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.

008.012
YUSUFALI: Remember thy Lord inspired the angels (with the message): "I am with you: give firmness to the Believers: I will instil terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them."
PICKTHAL: When thy Lord inspired the angels, (saying): I am with you. So make those who believe stand firm. I will throw fear into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Then smite the necks and smite of them each finger.
SHAKIR: When your Lord revealed to the angels: I am with you, therefore make firm those who believe. I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them.

Skin Disease = Dermatographic Urticuria
Skin Writing = Islamic Miracle
Skin Disease = Islamic Miracle

Islamist blowing bodies to pieces = Paradise with 72 Houris and 28 Gelamans
Dead Islamist = Miracles with Perpetual Erection

TO UMAIR AHSAN.
YOU SAY ISLAM TAUGHT YOU TO RESPECT OTHER PEOPLE OF THE BOOK{JEWS&CHRISTIANS}.
BUT MY DEAR BRAIN WASHED FRIEND...YOUR qURAAN CALLS THE CHRISTIANS AND JEWS.
APES AND PIGS,AND EYE FOR AN EYE,SO MUHAMAD STARTED FIRST BLOOD WITH THE PEOPLE OF THE BOOK,SO TIT FOR TAT ,YOU CALL ME A PIG AND THE JEWS APES,WE WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS WITH OUR HANDS FOLDED BEHIND OUR BACK,YOU MUSLIMS NEED TO RESPECT US FIRST THEN WE WILL CONSIDER TO BE NICE TO YOU ALL,UNTILL THEN I SAY TO MUHAMAD EAT MY SH@T,AND PIGS URINE AND BLOOD UPON HIM AND HIS COMPANIANS,ABU BAKER,OMAR AL-KHATAB,OTHMAN BEN AFAN,AND ALI BEN ABU TALEB,AND SCREW YOUR ALLAH AKBAR THE PIMP MASTER ,THE MUSLIM JANAT-PARADISE-IS A WHORE HOUSE 72 SHARMOOTA-HOOKERS-ARE IN WAITING FOR YOU IF YOU KILL AN INFIDEL,OTHERWISE YOU ARE NOT A GOOD MUSLIM YOU WILL END UP WITH ME AT T. G FRIDAYS HELL DRINKING BEER AND PISSING ON MUHAMMAD.

Dear Umair Ahsan, If you were know all the evil teaching of the Koran and hadith,if you were know all the atrocity committed by mohammad and his fellow sahaba in the past, and if you were know all the terrible atrocity are committed by the muslim right now then you perhaps would be more angry then us.Thanks...

TO UMAIR AHSAN.
MUHAmad TOLD HIS ISLAMIC PEOPLE YOU ARE THE BEST NATION OF ALL TIME.
DO YOU REALY KNOW WHY MUHAMAD SAID THAT,I BET YOU DON,T LET ME TELL YOU.
HE SAID IT IN ORDER TO SPITE AND PISS OFF THE JEWS,COZ MOSES TOLLD HIS PEOPLE YOU ARE THE<<>>.
THE JEWS ARE SMART IN ALL FIELDS,YOU MUSLIMS ARE BEHIMD ALL OTHER NATIONS.
HUNDRED OF LIGHT YEARS,SO TELL ME YOU MUSLIMS,WHAT ARE YOU BEST AT?!?!?CHEATING,TRICKING,LYING,MURDERING INNOCENT PEOLE,RAPING 6 YEARS OLD GIRLS UNDER THE COVER OF MARRIAGE,BLOWING UP EACH OTHER IN IRAQ,PAKISTAN-AFGHANISTAN,SOMALIA PIRACY THE ISLAMIC WAY,YOU KNOW MUHAMAD WAS A THIEF AND A PANDIT,SO THE SOMALIS ARE FOLLOWING THEIR ROLL MODEL CRAZY MOE,DRESSING UP YOUR MUSLIM WOMEN IN BLACK TRASH BAGS,YOU PEOPLE CALL IT BURQA OR NIKAB,JAPANESE STYLE NINJA,S.
BEFORE THE INVASION OF AFGHANISTAN THE MUSLIM WOMEN WALKED 15 FEET BEHIND THEIR HUSBANDS,NOW THEY WALK 15 FEET AHEAD OF THEIR HUSBANDS,NO ITS NOT ISLAMIC DEMOCRACY,THEY DO THAT IN CASE THERE IS LAND MINES ON THE ROAD,WOMEN IN ISLAM ARE CATTELS,NOT HUMAN,THEY DIE LIKE A DOG WHO CARES IN ISLAM YOU CAN MARRY FOUR GOATS.ATHIESTS ARE HONEST PEOPLE,MUSLIMS 99% OFARE LIERS AND CHEATERS, I NEVER GO TO A MUSLIM OWNED RESTAURANT THEY ARE FILTHY ,THEY GO BATHROOM AND DON,T WASH THEIR HANDS.

TO UMAIR AHSAN.
MUHAmad TOLD HIS ISLAMIC PEOPLE YOU ARE THE BEST NATION OF ALL TIME.
DO YOU REALY KNOW WHY MUHAMAD SAID THAT,I BET YOU DON,T LET ME TELL YOU.
HE SAID IT IN ORDER TO SPITE AND PISS OFF THE JEWS,COZ MOSES TOLLD HIS PEOPLE YOU ARE THE CHOSEN PEOPLE.
THE JEWS ARE SMART IN ALL FIELDS,YOU MUSLIMS ARE BEHIMD ALL OTHER NATIONS.
HUNDRED OF LIGHT YEARS,SO TELL ME YOU MUSLIMS,WHAT ARE YOU BEST AT?!?!?CHEATING,TRICKING,LYING,MURDERING INNOCENT PEOLE,RAPING 6 YEARS OLD GIRLS UNDER THE COVER OF MARRIAGE,BLOWING UP EACH OTHER IN IRAQ,PAKISTAN-AFGHANISTAN,SOMALIA PIRACY THE ISLAMIC WAY,YOU KNOW MUHAMAD WAS A THIEF AND A PANDIT,SO THE SOMALIS ARE FOLLOWING THEIR ROLL MODEL CRAZY MOE,DRESSING UP YOUR MUSLIM WOMEN IN BLACK TRASH BAGS,YOU PEOPLE CALL IT BURQA OR NIKAB,JAPANESE STYLE NINJA,S.
BEFORE THE INVASION OF AFGHANISTAN THE MUSLIM WOMEN WALKED 15 FEET BEHIND THEIR HUSBANDS,NOW THEY WALK 15 FEET AHEAD OF THEIR HUSBANDS,NO ITS NOT ISLAMIC DEMOCRACY,THEY DO THAT IN CASE THERE IS LAND MINES ON THE ROAD,WOMEN IN ISLAM ARE CATTELS,NOT HUMAN,THEY DIE LIKE A DOG WHO CARES IN ISLAM YOU CAN MARRY FOUR GOATS.ATHIESTS ARE HONEST PEOPLE,MUSLIMS 99% OFARE LIERS AND CHEATERS, I NEVER GO TO A MUSLIM OWNED RESTAURANT THEY ARE FILTHY ,THEY GO BATHROOM AND DON,T WASH THEIR HANDS.

I say for all those who are attacking Muslims or Islam or even God: What does Islam have to do with such news? This woman is whether telling the truth or fooling the people of Russia and the world.
If she's telling the truth, then it's ok. And none of you will dare to say anything.
If not then she's someone who's fooling us.
But let me ask you, if she's fooling us then do we have to take Islam and or Muslims for all that?
Some said up there that Muslims hate I don't know whom, because they can see through them.
This means that if this happened with a Christian or Jew or a Hindu or an atheist or whatever, then you'll conclude that their religion is to blame for that.

NOT LOGICAL at all...

Bad people have no religion, if anyone (with weak personality or disturbed psychology) got the chance to exploit whatever circumstances to gain more money or celebrity, then he'll never hesitate to do it.
And if we talked with probabilities,
I don't think that none of the creeds I mentioned above isn't embraced by one of these bad guys who fool people.

I think it's too easy nowadays to prove whether this woman is responsible for what's happfening to the baby or not. You claim that you're civilized and modernized enough to judge anything after being processed by legal institutions, which is not what you're doing now by your posts, you're prejudging. You're not objective as you claim.

If I were you, I'd have waited for the proof to be declared instead of attacking with no logical reasons.
And I think Russia is not Muslim and will not leave such event with no inquiries, as it's the trend of Muslims, as some said in one of the posts above.

TO RANA ,arabs names their daughters rana a lot,are by any chance an arab woman.
regardless,i am an arab and lived 40 years in jerusalem among the muslim arab,frankly they are barbarians,i have not yet met a freethinker muslim,islam teaches them SALAF=copy your 7th century ancestors traditions,the secularist people are evil do not trust them or associate with them,this is in the so called holy book Quraan,they encourage killing in the name of allah,infidels,kill their men take their women as sexual slaves and sell their children into slavery,you as a woman if you get captured by osama bin laden,he will rape you multible times before the sun set,well the sun does not set but earth rotates,but in islam if you say otherwise you will be killed,in islam earth is flat not a globe.a saudi shiek issued a fatwa in 1978 to kill any person says earth is a globe coz the Quraan says its flat,muslims killed all my great great great grand parents when they invaded jerusalem 1400 years ago,my family converted back to christianity after the crusades entered jerusalem and liberated them from bloody islam,my family survived the islamic genocide by fearfuly becoming muslims by the threat of the sword other member of my relatives died for their belief of staying christians.if you are a muslim, you should study your islam objectivily.and if you not step aside let us do our business of bringing down this monster cult of islam,we can,t treat them with baby gloves,you fight fire with fire,not by throwing flowers at them.no more 9/11.its your choice to stay an ignorant woman.love the musl;ims i don,t care,if they try to hurt my family or other families we will terminate them in a nano second. muhaMAD pig urine and blood be upon him,and on his pimp master allah akbar.salute

Hello Doctor Sabrina Clarke,

I am glad to hear that you are a scientist and you believe in science and proof , not in BS!

Can you please give us the scientific explanation of this skin writing?

Can you please explain why a loving God would torture a baby to write on his body and what does he want to prove with that? Let us say someone came in the middle of the night and did this to your baby, would you say this person is a good person? Assuming these writings are paranormal, as a scientific mind like yours has concluded, this is child abuse and quite diabolic in my view.

To me, this is a clear example of BS. But you are a scientist and I am sure you will educate me. I am all ears.

@the mufti
I'm sad to find that this is the way to discuss issues.
I don't like swearing in discussions, so please make your phrases structured enough to convey your idea, no need for insults.
If you claim you're making part of a civilized community so please show it.

As for the history, you're talking about controversial events. I don't see them the way you do. And that's history, seeing events from different point of views.
I can interpret many events related to Christianity or Judaism in different ways.

And you taking the story of the Russian woman as a pretext to attack Islam, shows that you don't have enough reasons for all that.
If Islam is the problem, you'll be attacking it in another place than here. You were just waiting for the door to be opened to make your attack in this context now. If you got strong reasons do your attack without waiting for such a story.
This is a story about a strange thing happening to a boy interpreted as a miracle related to a specific creed. Instead of you analyzing the whereabouts of the story, you attacked the creed itself.
The truthfulness or the credibility of this story has nothing to do with the credibility of a religion like Islam.

This topic contains posts wide of the subject.

Two points

1 - Medics deny that the marks are from someone writing on the child's skin.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1221481/Russians-left-...

2 - The marking due to 'Dermatographic urticaria' that are also shown on this webpage are very different to that child's markings. Whereas the disease markings look to be engrossed over the skin, the child's marking appear to be more like a mehndi or hennna coming within the skin. As an instance, check this out

http://somaliswiss.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/the-body-of-a-nine-month-...

You probably wanna come up with another explanation.

**************************************************************************

"But when Our Clear Signs are rehearsed unto them, those who rest not their hope on their meeting with Us, Say: "Bring us a reading other than this, or change this," Say: "It is not for me, of my own accord, to change it: I follow naught but what is revealed unto me: if I were to disobey my Lord, I should myself fear the penalty of a Great Day (to come)." (Quran-10:15)
**************************************************************************

TRUTH.
DO YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT ARABIC WRITTING?
arabic writting has TASHKEEL AND TANKEET IN ORDER FOR YOU TO BE ABLE TO READ AND WRITE WITHOUT MAKING SPELLING MISTAKES AND GRAMMER MISTAKES.
MUHAMMAD TOLD HIS FOLLOWERS THAT AL-qURAAN WAS WRITTEN BY ALLAH ON A LARGE TABLET ,AND ALLAH CHOSE MUHAMMAD TO BE HIS PROPHET ,AND ALLAH USED JIBREEL AS A MAIL MAN TO SPOON FEEDING MUHAMMAD EVERY DAY NEW AYAH{VERSE }AND IT TOOK ALLAH AND JIBREEL 23 YEARS TO FINISH FEEDING MUHAMMAD QURAAN,AND MUHAMMAD DIED.
QURAAN WAS NOT WRITEN ON PAPER BUT MEMORIZED BY THE TRUSTED FAITHFUL,UNTILL THE FAMOUS ISLAMIC BATTLE OF THE YAMAMA,SO THE 3 CALIPH OTHMAN BEN AFAN ORDERD THAT THE QURAAN SHOULD BE WRITTEN IN A BOOK COZ SO MANY MEN WHO MEMORIZED THE QURAAN BY HEART DIED IN THE YAMAMA BATTLE, SO OTHMAN WAS AFRAID QURAAN WILL VANISH WITH THEIR ABSENCE.SO ALLAH,S ORIGINAL QURAAN WAS WRITEN WITHOUT TASKEEL AND TANKEET,TASKEEL AND TANKEET IN ENGLISH MEANS SIGNS LIKE WHEN YOU DOT THE I,S AND CROSS THE T,S,IF THE WRITING ON THE BABY IS A MIRACLE,BECAUSE ITS STRAIGHT FROM ALLAH THEN ,THE QURAANIC VERSES SHOULD BE WITHOUT TASHKEEL AND TANKEET,LOOK AT THE WRITING ON THE BABY SKIN IT HAS TASHKEEL AND TANKEET,SO THIS IS A HOAX NOT A MIRACLE,AND I BET A MILLION DOLLARS IF YOU CAN PROVE WRONG,YOU SHOULD CONSULT WITH THE GRANDEST CENTER OF ISLAM AL-AZHAR IN CAIRO EGYPT. .

Dear the mufti, you make a good point.The earliest copy of quran which are preserved today various famous museum clearly shows the verses of quran are without tashkeel and tankeet or the symbol differentiating the same consonant( Jabar,Jer,pesh etc...) in fact quran was written in those copies that non-Arab muslim FACE difficulties during reciting quran. It was Hajjaz-Bin-Yosuf the ruler of Kufa (present day Iraq) under Umaiyyad caliphite who added this symbol so that non Arab muslim would be able to read quran. Hajjaz-Bin Yosuf was a ruthless ruler who had done many atrocity to make secure the Umaiyyad caliphite and he ordered to kill many thousands pious muslim who opposed them.He add this symbol about 100 years after muhammad had died and there was a controversary that he changed the meaning of quran on behalf of the ruling class.So original quran which was written without Tashkeel and Tankeet are found only earliest quran and there is a generalized difference of opinion the meaning of earliest quran. So if allah wanted to show his miracle through quranic verses on the child's boby than why he choise the Tashkeel and Tankeet added quran which was added by the enemy considered by the mainstream muslim? It reveals the obvious hoax done by the muslim to mislead the world people.Thank you.

@ Mufti and @ Murtad

Arabic grammar was neither the core argument made above, nor did I talk about it in my refutation. Your bringing up a new argument sounds to me that you probably cannot defend the argument anymore and are jumping around in your amazement. I will just rest my case here.

Since you are probably more knowledgeable in Quran than me, I assume you recall this sort of argument is not new and was the case with Bani-Israel when they were asked to slaughter the cow.

Peace!

2:17 Their similitude is that of a man who kindled a fire; when it lighted all around him, Allah took away their light and left them in utter darkness. So they could not see.

2:18 Deaf, dumb, and blind, they will not return (to the path).

Mashallah,

Allah has promised this, allah has promised this,mashallah.

Mashallah, Allah forgive all of those who deny you and your signs.
O Allah let them harm us or kill us but we will follow u,but u are all well knower,please forgive them who deny you.Give them Hidayath.

To ARP,I would kindly request you to quote the five immediately previous verses.You deliberately left them out because they would have made the context different from what you have potrayed.First of all the chapter you qouted is wrong,its chap#10 not 9.Secondly,if you read the previous verses they tell us that on pilgrmage of 9th hijri,an ultimatum of four months was given to pagans after which they had THREE choices:1-To accept Islam,2-To leave Arab and settle elsewhere,3-To fight and take territory from Muslims if either of the previous two werent acceptable to them.Now pagans were required to to act on first two choices within four months of ultimatum otherwise those who have neither accepted Islam nor left Arab will be in a state of war.Then verse five says then when the prohibted months i.e. ultimatum period finishes there will be an open war between pagans and muslims.Now whats wrong if a commander says to his commrades thar in a battlefield kill enemy soldiers where ever you find them.Any army general would have said this to his soldiers.Even American and NATO forces have orders to kill milliltants on sight(orotherwise they themselves will be killed).Now what my dear brother ARP has deliberately left out is THE IMMEDIATE NEXT VERSE which says that IF ANY ONE OF THESE PAGANS SEEKS ASSYLUM FROM YOU ,"GIVE IT" TO HIM UNTIL HE LISTENS TO THE WORD OF GOD AND ""ESCORT HIM TO HIS PLACE OF SAFETY"""""".This verse says that if anyone of them wants to know about islam(this is after the ultimatum is over and war is being held and the person in context hasnt either accepted islam nor left Arab but doesnt want to fight) and seeks asylum,then provide it to him and preach islam to him.If he still doesnt accept Islam then escort him back to his place where he is safe because he has already saught asylum.Tell me,even the most generous and merciful Army General in the world would have said that "leave him" or "run aways" to an enemy soldier.But Islam shows unprecedented mercy for everyone,it says not only leave him or let him run away but ALSO ESCORT HIM TO HIS PLACE OF SAFETY.OH MY GOD,SUCH IS THE BEAUTIFUL OF ISLAM.I am greatly impressed.