Posted on 11/14/2009 7:54:19 AM PST by Gamecock
SPRINGFIELD - An image many of the faithful took as a miraculous manifestation of the Virgin Mary is fading from the window at Mercy Hospital where it appeared in September 2008.
The rainbow-hued image is slowly being replaced by a white crystalline residue, said Mark M. Fulco, senior vice president for strategy and marketing at Mercy. The fading bolsters expert opinion that the image was caused by moisture infiltrating between the panes of glass through a faulty rubber seal.
Now that the window has been removed and stored, the water is evaporating and leaving behind the white residue.
Fulco said the problem of water infiltration is not unusual in this type of window.
"What is unusual is it taking this shape that many people felt such a strong connection to," he said.
A hospital visitor who'd been praying for help for his cancer-stricken mother noticed the image in September 2008, just as Mercy was replacing all the windows in its medical office building.
Word of the image spread quickly. Soon large crowds had gathered in the parking lot below, many clutching pictures of Mary or reciting the Lord's Prayer in a number of languages. A makeshift shrine of flowers and votive candles grew near the building entrance.
The vision placed Mercy, a Catholic institution affiliated with the Sisters of Providence, in a quandary because the devotion was holding up the window replacement work. After eight days, Mercy had workers gingerly remove the window, place it in a specially built case and take it to a storage location that Fulco said he cannot identify even to this day for fear of crowds gathering at the storage site.
People have been checking on the window periodically and will continue to do so, Fulco said. The hospital has not made plans for the window's future other than keeping it in storage .
Ping
It seems weird to say it in this context on Free Republic, but this thread is useless without pictures.
Looks like a nude girl pressed herself against the glass....then again, I have an active imagination.
Stand back from the screen about ten feet.
Wow, from 10 feet away it looks like Willie Nelson!
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