We are talking about images of saints and revered people who miraculously appeared after their death on various objects and surfaces. The most famous image of this kind is the face of Christ, found on the veil, which, according to legend, was wrapped around his body after death.
Despite the fact that no traces of any dye were found on the shroud (which would indicate an artificial nature of the image), the authenticity of the find is questioned by many researchers. According to radiocarbon analysis, the time of making the shroud dates back to the Middle Ages, which, however, does not diminish the significance of the extraordinary appearance of the image of Christ on this relic.
Veronica's scarf
This is the second most important face of Christ for Christianity, supernaturally displayed on linen. According to legend, when the weary Jesus staggered under the weight of the cross to the place of his execution, a certain woman named Veronica took pity on him, gave him a drink and wiped his face with her own handkerchief. Returning home, she found that the face of Christ was imprinted on the kerchief as in a photograph. Currently, this shrine is kept in an old monastery in Manoppello, Italy.
As in the previous case, the authenticity of this relic is questioned by some. However, it is firmly established that the face of Christ is depicted without the help of paints and is clearly visible in the light. The face on the scarf turns out to be identical to that on the shroud. Saint Veronica herself is revered throughout the world as the patroness of photography and photographers. It is also known that in September 2010 Pope Benedict XVI visited the town of Manoppello, who prayed for several minutes in front of the miraculous image of Christ.
Virgin Mary of Guadalupe
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This happened in December 1531, when the Mother of God appeared three times to an illiterate peasant from Mexico named Juan Diego. According to the surviving written sources, he met with the Virgin Mary three times at the top of a hill located in the territory of present-day Mexico City. The Mother of God ordered Juan to turn to the bishop in order to build a temple on the hill, and as a sign of proof of her words, she gave the hierarch a bouquet of blooming roses, which was completely unthinkable for this time of year. The bishop, of course, was surprised, but he was even more struck by the image of the Madonna, imprinted on the peasant's cloak, in which these roses were wrapped. On the hill in honor of this event, the Church of the Virgin of Guadalupe was built, where more than 10 million pilgrims from all over the world flock annually.
To date, the image of the Virgin Mary and the material of the cloak on which it was depicted have undergone numerous analyzes. It was found that when creating the portrait of the Virgin, no dyes were used, and all parts of the drawing were, as it were, drawn in one stroke, without any breaks or strokes. Mexican scientists came to the conclusion that the canvas on which the image was imprinted was woven from the fibers of a local cactus, which by their nature are very short-lived and cannot last more than 30 years. But in fact, this fabric has existed for almost half a millennium, showing no signs of decay, and this turns out to be completely incomprehensible.
Separately, the wide open eyes of the Madonna were examined, in which, as it was established by computer scanning, more than a dozen different human figures were reflected, among which one can distinguish the face of a man with a beard. Based on a comparison with the surviving portrait, it was possible to establish that this is the face of the very bishop to whom the poor peasant Juan Diego addressed.
The faces of mere mortals
However, one should not think that only images of Jesus Christ or some saints appear spontaneously - ordinary mortals can also serve as "models" for pictures not made by hands.
So, for example, on the eve of the twentieth century in Wales, the respected rector of the local cathedral, John Woghen, died. After he was buried, his profile appeared on the wall of the church with his initials below - J and V. The portrait was clearly visible for several days, and then disappeared.
A similar case happened 20 years later, but in another church and with another priest, where his portrait also appeared against the background of the wall, which lasted for several years. Such cases were noted more than once, and they concerned not only priests.
So, for example, Senora Maria Gomez Pereira, a resident of a village in southern Spain, on the morning of the summer of 1971 discovered an unusual image of a face on the tiled floor of her kitchen. She tried to wipe it off and even used detergents, but nothing came of it. The next day, the portrait looked even brighter, and the face of the man depicted here took on an ominous expression. The rumor of an extraordinary phenomenon quickly spread throughout the district, after which curious people often came to Pereira's apartment who wanted to see the miracle. In the end, the hostess got tired of this, and she asked her son Miguel to knock down the tiles and put a new one in its place.
However, it did not take long to rejoice. A few days later the old image appeared in the same place. In it, the old people recognized their fellow villager, who died many years ago when they were still children. Experts undertook to study a strange phenomenon, who came to the conclusion that the portrait does not contain any paints, but how it was painted is unknown. With the consent of the owners, the image was carefully chipped and reassembled, enclosing it in a frame under glass, and excavations were carried out in this place. The version that the house is located in an abandoned cemetery was fully confirmed, since at a depth of two meters they found a skeleton, apparently, of the same person whose image periodically appeared on the surface. When the bones were reburied elsewhere, the portrait no longer appeared.
Miraculous phenomena in the post-Soviet space
They are found now on the territory of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, since ancient times known for their Orthodox traditions.
So, for example, in the fall of 2003, most Belarusian newspapers reported on the appearance of the face of Jesus Christ on the wall of a rural church in the village of Pustynki, Mstislavsky district. A similar story happened in the small town of Vynnyky in the Lviv region, where the plaster on the church building peeled off, revealing the contours of the image of the Virgin and Child. The local patriarch reacted at first to the find with coolness, but when he ran his hand over the outline, human features began to appear on the faces. Vladyka remembered that miracles had been celebrated at this place before: a few years ago, here in the sky, many saw the Virgin Mary, and in the fall, fruit trees always bloom in this place. Moreover, other unusual phenomena were noted nearby. So, for example, in 2008, the outlines of the Mother of God appeared on a stump split by lightning, and pilgrims often came here.
Let's say that other Christian symbols sometimes spontaneously appear on the cuts of a tree. The image of the patriarchal cross was discovered, for example, by a resident of the village of Chaadaevka, Penza region, Kadus Y. in 1997. He was preparing firewood and unexpectedly found this miracle in a chip of one of the logs. According to Kadus, this shocked him. He hid his find for about 10 years, but did not dare to burn the log and in the end gave the rarity to the local Orthodox priest. The find was studied by Penza ufologists, who came to an unambiguous conclusion: the cross is not the work of a person. Currently, a log with a not-made image of a Christian cross is consecrated and stored in one of the village churches. It is known that similar crosses in the chips of trees were found even earlier in Nizhny Novgorod and Odessa …
Two years ago, a miracle happened in the village of Vybli, Chernihiv region, the news of which spread throughout the world: the face of the Mother of God appeared on the trunk of an old linden tree growing in the courtyard of the local church, which led to a mass pilgrimage there of believers and ordinary curious people. The church authorities were forced to enclose the tree with a wall, since everyone wanted to break off at least a piece of bark from it or tear off a leaf. A little more, and there would be nothing left of the linden. But inside the church there is now a brisk trade in photographs of an icon not made by hands, which, as many believe, saves from adversity …
Quite recently, in the Cherkasy region, near the village of Shpola, where a busy highway runs, truckers discovered the miraculous face of Nikolai Ugodnik on one of the trees. They stopped here for a halt and suddenly saw that one of the trees was glowing strangely. It was an unevenly cut stump from an old poplar tree, on which the drivers saw a distinct image of the saint, which they immediately reported to the local priest. The villagers and everyone passing by come here to pray. It is believed that the miraculous image protects them all from road accidents - there have been too many of them in this particular place lately.
The shrine abhors contention
It happened in 1998, when Ruslan L., who lives in the Poltava region, decided to cut off a heavy branch of an old pear, which leaned strongly towards the neighboring plot. He succeeded, but on the cut, he suddenly discovered a clear image of the Virgin and Child. Since that time, curious and pilgrims have become frequent visitors to Ruslan's yard. However, after they began to pick off the leaves of the tree and break off the bark, a round-the-clock police post was established near the pear so that the curious would not spoil the shrine. Many parishioners brought money, which Ruslan put in a safe, the keys to which were kept by the local priest, Father Anatoly. However, when a decent amount accumulated there, a conflict arose between the owner of the pear and the local priest. The priest wanted to take all this money for himself, for church needs,while Ruslan began to demand at least a small share of them in order to bring the territory trampled by the pilgrims in order. The dispute reached a dead end, and the old pear, as if sensing these strife, began to wither and dry up. Moreover, the image of the Mother of God on the cut began to fade, and the number of healings that all this time occurred to people who spent days and nights near the tree began to dramatically decrease.
The point of view of parapsychologists
When portraits of deceased people begin to appear in various places, it serves as proof that our existence does not end with physical death. However, when the faces of the saints or of Jesus Christ himself appear miraculously, the explanation will be different. We can say that the miraculous appearance of human images and other drawings in the most unexpected places is all a manifestation of the so-called egregor or collective unconscious.
Mind has a materializing effect, especially when it is a collective mind or when one person focuses on one thought very strongly and for a very long time. As a confirmation, one can cite the parable of an old woman, popular in the East, who was given a simple pebble from the road instead of a shrine. For many years, a gullible woman prayed earnestly to this stone, as a result of which miraculous images of deities appeared on it.