Crowds Visit Woman in Jordan Who Says She Saw Virgin Mary
Crowds of people on Wednesday flocked to the home of a young woman who says the Virgin Mary appeared to her and marked her with three crosses.
Lina Karabashi, an 18-year-old Roman Catholic, said the Virgin Mary drew three crosses on her body Saturday as she rested in her room at Hussein Medical City, where she underwent foot surgery. Scores of strangers visited Karabashi in her hospital room, and hundreds more came to her home since her release Tuesday.
“We cannot yet determine if this phenomenon is sacred,” pending further investigation, said a Roman Catholic church official in Amman, who insisted on anonymity.
An Associated Press reporter who visited Karabashi, who is an Iraqi, in the hospital on Sunday saw reddish crosses on the left side of her neck, left arm and upper chest. The biggest, on her chest, measured 6 inches by 6 inches and the others 2 inches by 2 inches.
On Wednesday, the two left side crosses had disappeared, while new ones had appeared on the right side of her neck and right arm. The crosses darkened and faded in color as the visitors watched.
A doctor who had treated the woman but refused to give his name said the crosses “were not external or caused by any scratches.”
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