CHRISTIAN RAVAZ

Our Lady of Soufanieh

Source of Holy Oil, Damascus, Syria

The apparitions in Damascus

Preface by Father René Laurentin

This book is available in its entirety in electronic form on the INTERNET at the following address: http://www.soufanieh.com (all lower case) or at http://www.soufanieh.com

Translated, edited and updated from the French edition of 1988: "Les apparitions de DAMAS --- Christian Ravaz" with permission from the author, by «Association Notre-Dame de Soufanieh de Montréal» (September 1997).

First English edition, September 1997.

All rights reserved worldwide.

© Messengers of Our Lady of Soufanieh (1997)

First printing: 10,000 copies.

Published by: The Messengers of Our Lady of Soufanieh.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system or translated into any language in any form by any means without the prior written consent of "The Messengers of Our Lady of Soufanieh".

This book is based on the written testimonies of Fathers Joseph Malouli and Elias Zahlaoui also from Myrna Nazzour's personal notes and on the investigation and interviews undertaken by the author himself in Damascus.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE ..................................................................11

WHY THIS OIL.......................................................19

A young and simple woman........................................19

The first visitors..........................................................25

Visits of the Church and of the Police........................27

THE TWO PILLARS OF SOUFANIEH....................33

Father Elias Zahlaoui..................................................33

Father Joseph Malouli, C.M........................................37

The two pillars of Soufanieh.......................................40

THE HEALINGS........................................................41

The first healing attributable to Soufanieh..................41

The first healing at Soufanieh.....................................42

The second healing......................................................44

Successive healings.....................................................46

THE FIRST APPARITIONS...................................53

Myrna was afraid of the Virgin................................53

The Virgin Mary confides a message to Myrna.......54

TRANSFER OF THE ICON

TO THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY CROSS..........................57

Myrna and Nicolas' interview

with the Patriarch........................................................57

The third apparition.....................................................63

The transfer of the icon...............................................61

The return of the icon..................................................62

A new healing.............................................................63

The fifth apparition.....................................................67

THE EVENTS SUCCEED

AT A RAPID PACE...................................................73

The Month of the Holy Oil..........................................73

Some reflections on the oil..........................................74

Ecstasies and stigmata.................................................79

Second appearance of the stigmata

and an ecstasy..............................................................81

It is necessary to pay the price.....................................82

Myrna meets with the Apostolic Nuncio....................85

A luminous blindness..................................................86

Events of Khabab........................................................91

The Virgin Mary calls again for unity.........................93

An astonishing message..............................................95

A 90 minute ecstasy....................................................96

One year of absence..................................................100

Let them come to Me at anytime...............................101

Events accelerate again.............................................104

Myrna bears the stigmata..........................................107

Ecstasy of Holy Saturday - 1987 ..............................114

Ecstasy of August 14^th, 1987.....................................115

Ecstasy of September 7^th, 1987.................................116

Ecstasy of November 26^th, 1987 ...............................116

What a lesson............................................................119

* Conclusion.............................................................122

* The seeds of the Phenomenon................................124

* THE MESSAGES FROM JESUS CHRIST AND

* THE VIRGIN MARY TO MYRNA......................125

* SCHEDULE OF VISIONS....................................147

* SHORT DOCUMENTARY ON THE

* ICON OF OUR LADY OF KAZAN.....................151

* ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...................................153

* PRAYER GROUPS - CONTACTS.......................155

* REFERENCES / BIBLIOGRAPHY......................157

(English, French, Arabic, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Dutch,Rumanian)

Note:

Items with a * on the left margin are new items that were not in the original French book published in 1988 and which have been added with the full approval of father Elias Zahlaoui.

PREFACE

It happened in the Orient. This is not a tale of "A thousand and one nights". It is an astonishing document, truly disconcerting. We are in Damascus (Syria), the city where Saul of Tarsus was about to persecute the first Christians, and when he arrived...as a Christian, overcome by Christ. It is an Arab city where Christians are many, scattered among various confessions, the differences and divergences of which emerged throughout history. One finds in it all the contrasts of the Middle East, with deep Christian roots.

It happened to Myrna on November 27^th, 1982, at Soufanieh, a Christian quarter of Damascus, Syria: a small inexpensive icon, in a plastic setting frame, starts to ooze oil, drop by drop, enough to fill a saucer. Myrna is 18 years old. She is married to Nicolas since 7 months. She welcomes this oil as God's gift. Her husband had bought the icon during a trip to Bulgaria.⁽¹⁾

Wise men and scientists, even theologians, may knit their brows.

Oil? What for, what does it mean ? We have lost the sense of signs. The post-conciliar ritual (Vatican II) has suppressed the anointing of oil to the catechumens, symbol of the combat which characterizes Christian life. This unction, similar to the one applied on wrestlers, who, thanks to it, have escaped the holds of the adversary, is today optional and generally omitted. But one has kept the "Holy Chrism", oil that anoints the priests, bishops, and every baptized, every confirmed, as a sign that all Christians participate to Christ's fellowship. Oil is a Christian language.

It is also a Mediterranean language. It is sign of sweetness, of peace, of recovery. Since the origin of Christianity, the Church gives the unction to the sick. And pharmacists administer several remedies in some form of unctions. Some sick people ask spontaneously their physician:

-Doctor, you would not have some ointment... was what I heard from someone sick consulting in a hurry my brother who is a physician.

-He had a bone fracture the doctor answered:

-That would not be of any help.

But the patient insisted so much, that he would not let him leave without an oily ointment tube:

-It is excellent! he would say to him, so as to put him in a good state of mind... before his entrance into a clinic.

- But this oil from Damascus surely it does not come from Heaven! one may object?

That is what the police thought, when they disassembled and damaged the picture, probed the walls of the house, without finding anything suspicious. Similarly, physicians have pursued their investigation without finding any explanations, as one will read later. A few days before the oozing of the icon, oil had oozed unexpectedly from Myrna's hands. The analysis of the oil revealed it to be olive oil, and the physicians who attended several times the phenomenon are puzzled, because they attest that the human body cannot produce olive oil.

The unction of this oil on patients, has provoked healings that physicians have met with astonishment. Our reason is disturbed and protests against such healing phenomena.

Myrna lives the event simply in her daily life which is sometimes interrupted and disturbed by the phenomena. Would she have received the grace to also become an icon of the Virgin? Are we not all called to resemble God's image, Christ's image, or His Immaculate Mother's image? From this point of view, everything seems simple for her.

The Virgin Mary has appeared to her and messages were given to her, messages that we will also read in this book.

She has lived Christ's stigmata, and received the vocation to share Christ's Cross. She would have preferred glory than the Cross, but she has accepted the Cross, out of love for the Lord. This doesn't stop her from being a charming woman and a tender mother towards her children.

Her husband, initially a timid Christian, who at first tried to avoid marrying religiously has, since, entered grace. The Virgin told Myrna:

- I have not come to separate! Your married life will remain as it is.

The crowd comes to pray at Myrna's and Nicolas' home. These people bring with them the sick. They invade their house. The Nazzours make themselves available. Doctor Antoine Mansour, one of the physicians of the former American president, Ronald Reagan, who had investigated the phenomenon, has invited them to come to the United States of America in 1990.

Such is the astonishing story that you are about to read. The Church is prudent in this matter. She has the habit of waiting. Even more so since the Church in Damascus is split into various confessions. Myrna and Nicolas form a mixed home: he is Orthodox, she is Greek-Catholic. The Orthodox hierarchy, initially favorable to the phenomenon, has transferred the Icon solemnly to its Church. But the icon stopped oozing and was sent back to Myrna's house with much less ceremonial...

But who is Christian Ravaz, the author of this book? Why did he go to Damascus to inquire about this unusual phenomenon ?

Nothing predisposed him to this. He is not a fanatic of apparitions. He is a technician by trade, but also a Christian "in search", one could say, but not in the sense in which one uses this expression because it customarily designates critical Christians who put their faith in question, and look elsewhere, towards oriental disciplines (yoga, zen, transcendental meditation), psychoanalysis or one thousand other things as long as they are foreign to the essence of Christianity, thus dragging them finally elsewhere, and disorienting them...

Christian Ravaz has always been searching in the direction of the God of Abraham, revealed in Jesus Christ, towards God's proximity. He has always sensed Him, even during the crossing of the post-conciliar desert. Our transcendent God is close and intimate. He made man to His Image. He incarnated himself because of love beyond reason. To our human weakness, He gives us signs. It is not forbidden for God to make miracles in this place.

Christian Ravaz is not a sentimental. He had chosen a scientific career and lucrative one in the field of data processing. One could discern in him, besides his technical talents, his ability for trade. Under 30 years of age, he already held a good position in the commercial field of data processing. He was very wealthy, had a sports car and could afford anything. Why has this generous man, happy in his career, at 33 years of age, felt the emptiness of this full life? Why did he take the risk to leave everything? He doesn't like to be asked about it. He says that he doesn't know why himself. Without a doubt, because his heart (in the biblical and divine sense of the word) may have reasons which "reason" doesn't know. In 1976, he left this enviable and successful life to establish new Christian communities in Lyon (France) then to help a group of gifted teenagers aged between 9 and 14 years, surmount the test of their talents and find God. In 1986, he founded a monthly religious magazine "Chrétiens Magazine"⁽²⁾, filling a yet unfulfilled need: for those who are seeking -as he is- the proximity of God's intimacy: young adults, people tired of too many escapes, of too much drifting; humble believers who wish to meet God, not knowing how, and are on the look-out for signs that God continues to give, today, as always to help us through our human weakness. The Gospel invites us to decipher the signs of the times. And there are always signs at every period: sacraments first, but also these subtle familiar signs that God gives us in our daily routine. These signs are missed by those who don't have them. It helps Christians who know where to find them, Christian Ravaz knows it as I do.

For my part, I had written my first book on Medjugorje just like any other book. I didn't feel the need for apparitions and a lot of readers of this book wrote to me, telling me how they had recovered their lost faith. Christian Ravaz knows as I do, that faith is not evidence, but rather darkness, that it is about believing God simply on His given word: "Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed" said Christ. He knows that it is necessary to develop the essence of faith, but without despising nor rejecting such small signs from Heaven, that God gives to every generous life because He understands very well our sensitive nature.

Christian Ravaz had one more talent besides data processing and trade: the gift of journalism. His first articles were published when he was 15 years old. As a programmer, he liked information. He exercised it under all its aspects: radio, television, written press, initially as an amateur then as a professional. He likes making interviews and documentaries.

When he heard about the apparitions of Kibeho (Rwanda), in 1984, he went there immediately, and that is how Europe learned about Kibeho. We could say that he sensed it. I would rather say, according to theology, that he knew how to exercise "sensus fidelium": the 6th sense of the faithful that, often, discerns apparitions before authorities do, restrained that they are, by prudence and reservation.

The same intuition and the testimonies of Jean-Claude Darrigaud (priest and reporter to Antenna 2 - French TV station) and Elias Zahlaoui (vicar of Our Lady of Damascus parish) have attracted him towards Damascus. He jumped on it. And here is the result⁽³⁾. Christian Ravaz acts quickly, thinks quickly, but always very concretely. He can sometimes drive you out of breath. He drags you in an adventure where you can feel totally uncomfortable or lost. As a good journalist he takes things as they come; and also as a good Christian, acknowledges his humility before God.

Father René LAURENTIN ⁽⁴⁾

WHY THIS OIL?

A young and simple woman

Nothing led to think that Myrna, an eighteen year old young woman, married to Nicolas Nazzour for seven months at the beginning of the events, was going to be at the centre of an adventure that is beyond reason.

On Monday, November 22nd, 1982, Myrna accompanied by Alice, her mother-in-law, was at the bedside of Leila, Nicolas' sister, bedridden because of sharp pains that made her scream. Were also present several women, relatives, neighbors as well as Marie-Rose, Leila's eldest sister. The latter proposed that all people present pray for the sick. They prayed during several minutes, when... Let's listen to Myrna:

"Suddenly I felt a strange, indescribable thing, all my body shivered, as if a force had come out of me. A young Muslim woman named Mayada Kozaly shouted: «"Myrna, what's on your hands?.» Oil was oozing from my hands."⁽⁵⁾

Myrna almost fainted, and everyone spontaneously shouted: "Oh Virgin, help us." ⁽⁶⁾

After this initial emotion, Myrna rubbed the aching places on Leila's body with her hands filled with oil. The pain stopped instantaneously. Later, the women were rejoined by Nicolas, Myrna's husband. He noted the paleness of his wife's face, and was worried. His sister Marie-Rose explained to him the adventure that they had just lived, leading to the spontaneous recovery of Leila. He exploded with laughter and addressed his wife in a mocking tone:

-" Maybe you ate too much "labné" or macerated eggplants and oil has dripped on your hands? "

-" Brother, don't blaspheme " said his sister.⁽⁷⁾

Nicolas left the house and promised to come back later for his wife. When Farid, Leila's husband arrived, he found his wife smiling and busy at domestic chores. He said:

- Thank God, you look better.⁽⁸⁾

Everyone in the household concluded that he could not have said it better!

In the evening, while praying again in presence of Farid and Nicolas and after Myrna had washed her hands carefully and wiped them, Myrna's hands were filled with oil again. Farid and Nicolas were convinced that they were facing a supernatural phenomenon, something that they could not understand nor explain and that was totally irrational. Alike their respective wife, they thought then that this oil was a "sign from God". On their way home, Myrna and Nicolas were worried, shocked by the events and could not stop asking themselves: "Why would they have been chosen by God?". They knew that they were no saints (they sneered joyously when I asked them this question). Besides, they didn't have a religious background and went to Church only when necessary. Nicolas simply states that he was a believer, but he thought about God when in need only! In the days that followed the first manifestation, when Father Elias Zahlaoui who had come to investigate the phenomenon, asked Myrna whether she prayed a lot, she answered:

- Don't delude yourself Abouna (Father in Arabic), I am 18 years old, I got married seven months ago. All I know about prayers is the "Lord's prayer" and the "Hail Mary". I know how to make the sign of the Cross and sometimes go on Wednesdays to the confraternity of the Virgin with my mother-in-law at the Church of the Holy Cross to attend the service (...).

Myrna spent her childhood and adolescence between Beirut (Lebanon) and Damascus at the rhythm of her family's travelling. She has two brothers and two sisters. Nothing special has marked her childhood or adolescence. She has a reserved character, although jovial, her face often brightens into a beautiful genuine smile. Her behavior is normal and balanced; no pathological shortcomings, explained to me a physician in Damascus; adding jokingly "she is hopelessly normal". Nicolas is her elder by about twenty years. Myrna's parents had opposed their marriage, because of the age difference but they gave up at their daughter's resoluteness who felt a "real admiration" for this young man, she said. Nicolas, when he met for the first time his future wife, said: "I liked her immediately." He never thought about marriage, taking advantage of the freedom of celibacy. An old priest who talked to me about this couple, at Soufanieh, evoking their age difference had the following reflection: "Hadn't the exegetes put forward the theory that Joseph was Mary's elder by 20 to 25 years?"

Myrna and Nicolas have two children: a daughter called Myriam and a boy called Jean-Emmanuel. I attended Myriam's baptism, celebrated on July 15^th, 1987, by Father Michel Farah, of the Greek-orthodox rite, one of the first witnesses of the Soufanieh phenomenon, and who answered the call to priesthood then. Myriam, of whom we will talk about later, is a gracious little girl, full of life, who distributes hugs and kisses to all with her little hands, as soon as she hears Jesus' name.

Our young couple was not, at the very least, a "pillar of the Church." But they were sincere believers, the same as is most of our younger generation today. Let's review this problem for a minute.

Only an obtuse mind can be unaware of the spur of pains of all kinds that we live today: despair, anguish, hate, violence and solitude. The international dramas that defray the chronicles, are only the tip of the iceberg while many personal dramas have become commonplace. Haven't we sufficiently experienced these "modernistic solutions" some of which are very generous, and which wipe themselves clean quickly and are inefficient in the short term? We say: "Outside Truth, there is no Salvation!" More than ever, that popular common saying imposes itself as "the only" solution.

Few things invite our contemporaries to turn themselves towards God. Paradoxically, the seeking of the Truth is probably more intense than in the past, particularly with the younger generations. They largely disregard the Truth without seeing it, and get lost in the accommodating speeches of sects and in cheap and junky spiritualities.

If they are not recruited by these harmful proselytes, they return to feel the solitude of temporary loves, the boredom of modernistic spectacles and the gloomy appeal of the ephemeral fashions. Does one offer them something else that is accessible?

Would it be unreasonable and illusory to think that God cannot intervene directly? To doubt it, would mean to doubt the absolute love that our Creator has for us. Only a heart of stone would refuse to consider this mad hypothesis.

In the order of grace, God intervenes differently depending on the times. Be it in times of aridity, of times of darkness or times of profusion. Given the urgency of our times, God intervenes today with a precipitation and density that humanity has, for sure, not yet lived since His advent. The effects of His mercy, with their signs, so subtle in the past, are today more than ever visible and identifiable. A priest convinced about Soufanieh, in Damascus, told me without exaggerating: "It is sheer provocation." Myrna, her friends and family were "provoked". The aftermath of this provocation is already spreading throughout the planet. His only goal is to allow the largest number to adhere to the only "Truth" that is Love, without which the human being cannot bloom and discover serenely the "reasons to live."

Facing the phenomena that they had just lived, Myrna and Nicolas were very concerned, but they began little by little to give way to the idea that "God, is maybe asking something from them." Myrna was praying as such:

- My God, what is this oil? I know that it is of divine strength, but why have You chosen me, so weak, whereas thousands deserve more this grace than I do? In spite of everything, Thy will be done. Now, I offer you my actions, my fatigues, my pains, my sufferings and my joys, so that nothing interferes in my veneration for You. Oh God, I put in You all my hope, because I fear my weakness. Steer me away from any action that You do not want...⁽⁹⁾

What thanksgivings! Isn't this what faith is all about? Our young bridegrooms, are, since that day, living a fabulous adventure. They are witnesses and recipients of facts which, at the very least are astonishing. They will alternately live in anguish, then in serenity, then in doubt, then re-assured, then in pain, and finally in joy. A true "road that leads to faith" somewhat precipitated, but yet so easy to admit its necessity, for them and for us, if we welcome the opportunity.

The First Visitors

On November 25^th, Myrna's mother having learned about Leila's recovery, reminded her daughter, with a little reproach in her voice, that she also was suffering very much from the spinal column and asked her to pray for her. In the family's presence, Myrna prayed while holding a wad of dry cotton in her hand. Again oil appeared on her hands and dampened the cotton. Myrna, applied the piece of cotton on her mother's back, and since then, the dorsal pains have vanished.

The following day, Nicolas proposed that all the family observe a day of fasting, as a thanksgiving in order to express gratitude to God for this oil. The proposition was welcomed by all the family.

During a trip to Sofia, Bulgaria, Nicolas had bought ten small replicas of an icon of the Virgin Mary and of Christ Child framed in cheap plastic ivory imitation. He gave them as gifts to seven homes of the family. This small reproduction of the icon, of negligible value, will be known in the years to come by millions of Christians throughout the world.

On November 27^th, while Myrna was going about her domestic tasks, her eyes notice the two icons placed side by side. The first one, in wood, is very beautiful, it replicates an icon of the XVth century. The second is one of the ten small reproductions bought in Sofia. Myrna notices that the latter is very shiny, she takes it in her hands and notices that droplets of oil are forming on the glass cover that protects the reproduction. She is astonished. Once the surprise effect is past, she runs towards her husband. Nicolas doesn't believe his eyes, he trembles for a moment, and almost faints.

He takes the small icon from Myrna's hands and places it on a little decorative plate so that the oil doesn't fall on the ground. Quickly the plate fills with oil. ⁽¹⁰⁾

He then places the icon in a large silvery tray. Myrna and Nicolas kneel down, petrified, not knowing what to do.

- "How can oil flow so abundantly out of a picture printed on plain paper?" they would ask themselves.

Nicolas decides to bring over the remainder of his family. Myrna has remained alone, she is afraid.

What is it?⁽¹¹⁾ Suddenly, she hears a woman's voice:

- My daughter Mary, don't fear, I am with you. Open the doors, don't deprive anyone from my sight (...)⁽¹²⁾

Nicolas returns with several parents and friends. He is afraid of the aftermath of this new demonstration that he can't explain and demands from all the people present to keep the secret and to repulse the curious. Myrna interrupts him:

-No Nicolas, I heard a woman's voice telling me to open the doors and not to deprive anyone from her sight (...)⁽¹³⁾

Nicolas agreed on the spot to his wife's request and opened the doors of their home. And the first visitors arrived. Almost fifteen years have gone by and thousands of visitors have since come in the modest house of Soufanieh to pray, among them many priests and several bishops.

Visits by the Church and by the Police

Having started on Saturday, November 27^th, 1982, these visits have not stopped to this day. The small house of Soufanieh will even become a place of pilgrimage as subsequently requested by the Virgin Mary in a "message."

The young couple have made the sacrifice of their private life in total freedom and total gratuity. Since the first days, they had placed a sign in the entrance of their home: "the inhabitants of this house refuse any offering and will not accept any donation whatsoever." I was a witness of this gratuity. To illustrate it, I propose to you a small anecdote. Father Elias Zahlaoui, at the time of my return to France on July 25^th, 1987, had confided to me several letters to mail out from Paris in order to expedite their delivery, since mail between Syria and the West can take quite some time. The envelopes were not sealed and when the custom officer opened them for inspection, you should have seen his surprise when he took out from some of the envelopes small pieces of cotton in little nylon bags, also some money and cheques. To tell you that the Customs officer looked at me with interrogatory eyes would be a euphemism. I hastened to read to him one of the letters (I had never done so before - my mother had raised me well), indeed I could not affirm to the Custom officer that I was not aware of the contents of the envelopes, this would have aggravated my case significantly! I explained to him that some Frenchmen had offered money to get a small piece of cotton filled with oil from the icon of Soufanieh and that the money was being returned to them. Custom officers around the world are used to hear weird and wonderful stories, however, seeing the face of this customs-officer in Damascus listen to my explanations, I am sure that he will never forget me again. He opened one of the nylon bags, felt and smelled the cotton pad, then put back everything upside down in my bag. Did he benefit from a special grace! Anyhow, he made me a sign to go through (without looking at the remainder of the contents of my luggage) and I didn't have to face the offense of exporting illegal funds from Syria !!!

The Nazzour family is not rich but is not poor. Nicolas has worked several years in Europe and accumulated some savings. Their house is moderately furnished. I would say that they have a status of life equal to the one of middle class Frenchmen.

But, what surprised me mostly is the constant availability of this family. Would you accept visitors at any time of day in your house? Would you accept daily crowded prayer service in your home at 18:00? Would you accept, as a young married couple, to give your bed regularly to patients, to invalids, to spend the night on the sofa in the living room? Myrna and Nicolas accept such servitude with a smile.

All the family agreed on the necessity to inform the Church authorities about these phenomena. Myrna belongs to the Greek-Melkite Catholic rite and Nicolas to the Antiochian Greek-Orthodox rite.

In the Middle-East, the woman adheres automatically to the religion of her husband. Therefore the Greek-Orthodox Patriarchate was informed. His Grace, Msgr Boulos Pandeli, accompanied by two priests, arrived quickly at the house on Saturday, November 27^th, 1982. They knelt with Myrna and prayed. Again oil appeared on Myrna's hands. The bishop expressed his emotion, since in his heart, he had asked for a sign showing the presence of the Virgin Mary!⁽¹⁴⁾ When the prelate was about to leave and Myrna wanted to kiss his hands, he refused and told her: "No, my daughter, we should be blessed by you." Myrna exploded in tears while saying (...)"This is something that I don't deserve"⁽¹⁵⁾. The young woman never veered from this natural simplicity.

On Sunday, November 28^th, 1982, things could have become tricky. The family received the visit of the State Security. The news of the phenomenon spread across Damascus like a trail of gunpowder. During these agitated times in Syria and because of the economic crisis, necessitating the setting up of a considerable police network, some thought, with reason that "this was not the time to attract attention!"

When police officer Akram Abboud entered the house in order to make his investigation, Mrs. Chahade Hanoun was explaining to Myrna how to pray the rosary, several people having expressed the wish that it be recited before the icon.

The security officer, after having completed his report took some photos. Later, in the afternoon, he came back accompanied by three colleagues and a physician, doctor Saliba Abdel Ahad.

At first, they asked Myrna to wash her hands with soap in front of them and then to wipe her hands in the white paper handkerchiefs that they supplied her with. Having returned in the living room, the four agents surrounded the young woman while the physician stood before her. They asked her to pray, which she promptly did. Wasn't this the time for God to intervene? Myrna's Hands were covered with oil.

Doctor Saliba rubbed the palm of Myrna hands, and for a long time observed the oozing of oil.

-What do you think doctor? said one of the agents. The doctor pointed his finger to the heavens while saying:

-This is God's work.

One of the agents asked the family for permission to disassemble the icon, since there was a rumor that the icon was fueled with oil through small pipes. The agent examined carefully the wall, removed the small reproduction from its protective plastic setting. Accidentally, he tore the top right corner (see cover photo). Immediately oil oozed from the small picture. The agent quivered. He placed the image in its original setting, prayed a moment then they all left. From that day, the small house of Soufanieh will welcome members of the government and of the army, no longer for investigation, but for prayer.

In the evening, around 19:00, Father Elias Zahlaoui, vicar of the Greek-Catholic parish of Our Lady of Damascus Church, arrived.

THE TWO PILLARS OF SOUFANIEH

Father Elias Zahlaoui

Father Elias Zahlaoui is about sixty years of age, he is a well-known academic and an appreciated personality in Damascus. He is the vicar of Our Lady of Damascus parish (Greek-Catholic rite), he enjoys the confidence and esteem of his bishop. Father Zahlaoui is a nice and jovial man who expends himself completely in all the activities that he undertakes, he is a man of "good deeds" and he has several happy initiatives to his credit.

On November 27^th, 1982, he received three times, one after the other, the visit of several members of the parochial choir of which he is the founder and organizer; the latter invited him to visit Soufanieh, in order to get his opinion. The first two times he refused categorically, prejudiced since his childhood of supposedly supernatural events that had no value but to attract jeers and gibes. But because of the insistence of these young persons, all known to be serious and balanced people, he decided to go to Soufanieh, only "to please them" he told me. Around 19:00, the young group arrives at Soufanieh; with some difficulty they pave themselves a path through the crowd which was in front of the house. Father Elias Zahlaoui is brought to the young Nazzour couple's room. The first impression that he has noted in his diary was the dense prayer atmosphere in the house, that still remains the main characteristic of Soufanieh, beyond the many supernatural phenomena. Father Pierre Boz, journalist of Radio Notre-Dame in France and who was one of the first Western journalists to publicly speak on the events of Soufanieh, which he had visited in mid-July 1984, had noticed the depth of the piety in the house and reported in one of his broadcasts: "Rare are the churches where one encounters such faith."

As soon as Father Zahlaoui entered the room, he asked to see the icon. When approaching it, he noticed something that looked like tears flowing slowly on the plastic covering the small icon. He asked for a small piece of cotton moistened with oil. Someone granted his request, he placed it in a small nylon bag. Similarly, several small pieces of cotton moistened with the oil were placed in small nylon bags and given to the young people who came with Father Zahlaoui. Father Zahlaoui joined the prayer group and a few minutes later noticed that the palm of his right hand was filled with oil, he ensured later that the nylon bag was not pierced.

At the end of the hymn, Father Zahlaoui was taken to the lounge, he asked to converse with Myrna. Being a person of experience in human relations, he wanted to feel the sincerity and the honesty of the young woman.

As a modern Churchman, he had no inclinations for these kinds of events, however, in his diary he notes the following impressions at the end of that conversation: "These people were sincere and awe-struck by what happened under their eyes."

Another fact challenged Father Zahlaoui that day. While he conversed with Myrna, her sister Lina entered the room and made him an unusual request:

- Father, could you come in Myrna's room with Myrna to pray, because the oil has stopped oozing from the picture?

At first, Father Zahlaoui is tempted to escape, but accepts to get close to the icon: he is terrorized; indeed this demand was strange in the very least. This reminds me that fifteen years ago, with some young friends, we had provoked the surprise and stupefaction of priests whom we merely asked for their prayers or their blessing, in order to obtain some cure, thus inspiring ourselves from the Charismatic Renewal with which we were familiar via the United States and Canada. Of course they were disappointed, but, seeing our determination and ingenuity, they could not refuse us. We obtained so many graces through them! In particular, one of them was the love of "the Priest" at times when we didn't understand the man who sometimes gave us the impression that he is not fully convinced of God's strength and of the graces linked to his ministry.

Father Zahlaoui knelt behind Myrna facing the icon. While he was praying silently for several minutes, he heard the young woman pronouncing a personal prayer:

- Oh Virgin, You are the source.. People come for You, not for me... don't allow the oil to ooze from my hands and stop from Your picture...Virgin, You are the source... Don't permit that the oil stops oozing from Your picture...

Father was surprised by the innocence and depth of this prayer. He continued to observe Myrna, who, without turning around, told him:

- I feel that the Virgin has penetrated inside me.

Father shivered when he heard the young woman's affirmation that he didn't quite understand. This is when he saw oil appear abundantly on Myrna's palms and fingers, forming bubbles, as if it were boiling. Drops built up all over again on the glass cover of the icon.

Father Zahlaoui was dismayed, incapable of making a decision; he told me: "I felt in another world."

The same evening he was anxious to report these facts to his bishop, Msgr Francois Abou-Mokh, who listened attentively and ended the interview by saying:

- Pursue your observation Father Elias, but I don't need to recommend to you to be prudent.

In the following days, the prayer program is more organized. The Acathist hymn and the rosary are the most frequent prayers at Soufanieh. However, time is allotted for personal or spontaneous prayers. In addition to the innumerable titles and supplications to the Virgin Mary in the Acathist prayers, some more have been added, the most frequent being: "Hail, Source of the Holy Oil" to which has also been added after the first healings: "... which brings about the healing".

Father Elias Zahlaoui wanted the phenomenon observed by as many people as possible, and in particular by scientists, priests and nuns. The first religious community that accepted to go to Soufanieh was the "Sisters of Our-Lady of Perpetual Help"; all the community came, led by its superior general, Mother Monique Battikha.

Father Joseph Malouli

Father Joseph Malouli is a robust octogenarian who enjoys a good health which is envied by many young men. At the time of my interview, I had a hard time keeping up with his walking pace in the streets of Damascus. He is an uncommon prominent personality in Damascus. He had been a professor at the Lazarist College of Bab Touma in Damascus during twenty-seven years. He is very popular with the thousands of his former pupils for... his severity. A rock-solid man. "In one piece" says the popular language, often hiding a "soft" heart that only children know how to discover. I understood it even more after seeing the desire of his ancient expatriate pupils in Europe or in the United States, to visit him whenever they spend their vacations back home. I could have attended one of his masses, his way of celebrating the mass is quite revealing. Behind his rough character, hides a deep piety, a special devotion for the Virgin Mary and a genuine love for Mankind. What strikes me more, is the lucidity of his faith. It is the harmonious mixture of this dense popular faith that leaves no room for doubt mixed with a solid doctrinal Catholic knowledge.

He was born in Maloula, Syria (origin of his name), one of the rare places in the world where one still speaks Aramaic, Christ's language. I have had the privilege to hear the "Lord's prayer" in the small monastery of this village, the way Our Lord taught it to His apostles. The inhabitants of Maloula were several times victims of horrible persecutions because of their Christian faith.

At the time of my investigation in Damascus several people, including priests, have confirmed to me that Father Malouli was allergic to any "extraordinary phenomena" related to faith. There have been several of them in Damascus in the past forty years, and he had fought them then vigorously.

He found out about Soufanieh the day the Security Officers accompanied by their physician met Myrna. He had been invited to go there to observe the oozing of the oil that exuded from the icon, but he categorically refused, affirming:

- " I wear a cassock and I don't want to involve the Church in something that has no head nor tail. "

Two weeks would pass before his first visit to Soufanieh.

The first time, he insisted on visiting Soufanieh with his Superior General, Father Farah along with the Mother Superior of the Daughters of Charity.

He affirms that he was not preoccupied to see the oil ooze from the icon, but rather, he wanted to meet Myrna. Through some theological questions he asked her, he was convinced that there was no hoax and that a supernatural event was possible. Since that day Father Malouli has decided to come and join the crowd in prayer.

The two pillars of Soufanieh

Since the first days of the phenomenon, Father Zahlaoui and Joseph Malouli have become interested in the events. Rapidly, they constituted archival files in which they recorded the many events. These two priests didn't benefit from getting involved in these events... except for encountering problems and sometimes the disapproval of colleagues slightly prone to admit what is out of the usual norms of the faith. They are both endowed with a solid general culture, an excellent reputation and an iron will at sustaining good causes.

Syrian intellectuals (physicians, lawyers, teachers...) became interested in the events at Soufanieh when they knew that Fathers Malouli and Zahlaoui were often there and seemed favorable. If in the future the Church authenticates these phenomenon, Heaven could not have chosen two better propagandists.

THE HEALINGS

The first healing attributable to Soufanieh

On Saturday, December 11^th, 1982, Myrna and Nicolas are solicited by the Hanna family to pay a visit to Samir, one of theirs, impaired with a serious case of thrombosis. Samir was also asking for the Eucharist. Myrna and Nicolas notified Father Zahlaoui who agreed to go with them and to give Holy Communion to Samir.

The trio, while entering the room of the sick, were surprised to see the latter rise from his bed, kneel down, and place his forehead on the ground. As Father Zahlaoui tried to stop his gesture, he replied:

- Father, God exists.

Reinstalled in his bed, after requesting Nicolas to leave the room, he addressed Myrna:

My sister Mary, you are thinking of retiring in a convent, and the Virgin Mary doesn't want you to do that.

Myrna is astonished at this statement, since she had thought about it intensely for several days, but didn't talk about it to anyone. Besides, he called Myrna by her baptismal name: Mary. Interestingly, the Nazzour and Hanna families don't know each other. Only close relatives and friends know Myrna's baptismal name. A few days earlier, Samir had suffered an infarctus followed-up by cerebral haemorrhage that turned him into a haemephlegia. Physicians had affirmed that he could die at any moment. A friend had rushed to Soufanieh and brought back a wad of cotton moistened with oil. In spite of the opposition of Samir's parents, his friend introduced the cotton bowl in Samir's mouth, while opening his jaw by force using a spoon.

Samir opened his eyes, reassured his family in tears, asked for Holy Communion, and asked for Myrna and Nicolas.

A reproduction of the image of the Virgin Mary (different from the one of Soufanieh) suspended above Samir's bed oozed oil repeatedly for three weeks.

Eight days after his recovery, on Sunday, December 19^th, 1982, Samir Hanna went to Soufanieh. While getting out of the car that brought him at the entrance of the house, his jointly-held hands were suddenly covered with oil. He raised his hands in the air and spread his fingers, fearing to be accused of concealing a wad moistened with oil between his hands or fingers. He entered the house his hands in the air. To everyone's surprise, and to those who knew the gravity of his illness, he was alert and his face was beaming with joy. He prayed for a long time before the icon. At the end of the afternoon, he attended Father Zahlaoui's mass at his parochial Church, Our Lady of Damascus.

The first healing at Soufanieh

On Thursday, December 16^th, 1982, the inhabitants of the house of Soufanieh received the visit of doctor Jamil Marji who tried for an hour to prove with rational arguments that all these events were subjective, because no modern science can prove them.

Suddenly, a woman clothed in black, on her knees before the icon, starts to scream. Other people close to her, are shouting:

Oh Virgin! She is healed.

She is taken to the lounge, emotionally shaken, incapable of expressing herself while moving her arms violently. Her son is close to her and explains that she had reached a paralysis of the right hand because of a calcification of the shoulder. Father Zahlaoui thinks that she has just been healed and, as a prudent man, requests medical certificates from her son as soon as possible. As a matter of fact, he had them with him: the day before, he had come with his mother Raquille Kilta to visit doctor Samir Roumani. The priest takes the certificate and doctor Jamil Marji who was near him, browses at it, and finally examines Mrs. Kilta.

A few minutes later, the physician comes back emotionally shaken, and tells Father Zahlaoui:

-Father, I surrender. This is beyond me and beyond any human power, I am ready to testify before anyone. Let me keep this report for a while, in order that I can continue to observe this lady's progress in collaboration with doctor Samir Roumani. (...)⁽¹⁶⁾

Let's render homage to the humility of this physician, who came into this house with the intention of reasoning these people thinking that they were in error and leaving the house with a new conviction that initially was not his.

Half an hour later, the district's chief policeman and the commander in chief of the police of Damascus, general Walid Hammamieh arrived. Doctor Marji had informed them of the spontaneous recovery of which he had been a witness.

These gentlemen who are responsible for maintaining civil order proposed their services to the household should the crowd, always on the increase, was to cause any trouble. Damascus was then living tense moments and one feared political manifestations. It is not useless to mention that policemen had strict orders to forbid any gatherings. This did not apply to Soufanieh. Besides, it is worth noting that through the years, several popular processions will take place around these events, some of which have gathered several thousands of people, without any significant incident.

The second healing

In the morning of December 17^th, 1982, Father Zahlaoui has just arrived at the house of Soufanieh when someone introduces him to Mrs. Ghalya Armouche who affirms that she has been healed in an extraordinary way.

For several months this lady had to endure violent pains in her right hand. In the evening of December 16^th, 1982, her daughter asks her to go to Soufanieh, but her pains are so sharp that she is unable to comply with the request, but asks instead for a piece of cotton impregnated with oil, which is granted. In the evening, before going to bed, she slips the cotton in her nightgown's sleeve, and after having prayed, she falls asleep. Mrs. Armouche affirms that in the night, she dreamed that a beautiful lady was pushing her shoulder while telling her:

- Stand up, your pains are gone !

As a matter of fact, the next day, her pains had gone. In the evening of December 27^th, 1982, Father Zahlaoui solicited an interview with Mrs. Armouche's physician: doctor Toutounji. Immediately the priest asks the practitioner's opinion on the foreseeable evolution of the illness of his patient while presenting him with an X-ray taken two and a-half months earlier:

- The poor woman is condemned to paralysis.

- Will it be possible to make an artificial joint?

- Here, no. But if these people are wealthy, she may be operated on in Europe. Anyway, ask her to come and see me tomorrow.

- I think that she doesn't need your services anymore doctor, some other physician has healed her.

- What are you saying Father?

- The Virgin Mary has healed her, doctor!

On Tuesday, December 28^th, 1982, doctor Toutounji performed a new X-ray followed by a check-up. He observed that the calcification, since the previous X-ray, had increased in volume, therefore full recovery could not be confirmed. Besides, the physician made us observe that his patient didn't recover the total mobility of her hand. To this day, the pain hasn't come back and the calcification is static. Contrarily to other healings at Soufanieh, with complete disappearance of the illness or the infirmity, here, one notes the disappearance of the paralysis and pain, although the calcification is present.

Successive healings

The number of healings is so important that a medical and an archival file could not be established for each case. Besides, several other healings have not been brought to our attention. One aspect of the events at Soufanieh enables us to note that physical healings which are generally considered peripheral in comparison with the supernatural event, here on the contrary, form an intrinsic part of the event. Most of these healings were eye-witnessed by many people, some of them in front of all present, and it is always a joyfully crowd which cheered God's glory for hours...

The number of Christians, whose faith in the past few years has been strengthened or rekindled by such events, is incalculable.

The credulous people affirming that healings can only occur to simple people (euphemism for saying: simplistic) should review their apriorism; I can easily mention an impressive number of intellectuals, physicians, engineers and priests who have been shaken up by supernatural phenomena and who don't grow weary of "testifying" of their return to God, some with a deeper faith, some with living a radical change in lifestyle. A few months ago, a priest told me about his discrete journey to Medjugorje in Yugoslavia, where he had gone after listening to one of my audio-cassette documentaries. He came back transformed. He had gone there incognito - he had removed the cross on his jacket and had replaced his Roman collar with a shirt full of flower designs(!) - however, the day after his arrival, without being able to explain it, he exercised the sacrament of confession during five hours. He spent most of the night sobbing, kneeling in the Church of the small Croatian village. This priest, who, while narrating his experience, told me "I have just become converted", has just accepted important duties in our Church.

The times of hyper-intellectualized faith, of bargain cheap theologies, of politicized religion, of institutionalized doubts, are over. God's people demand the Truth, and It alone.

How many were they on Sunday, December 18^th, 1982, in front of the house of Soufanieh, on the sidewalk, in the street, in the public garden? Five thousand? Ten thousand? We will never know. Nobody assessed this huge crowd of Christians and Muslims united in prayer.

Suddenly, in a disciplined way, as is the custom with people in prayer, the crowd spontaneously opened a pathway for a sick person. A young soldier, Mohammed Al-Kahwaji, carries in his arms his bedridden father.

Mohammed's father had been struck by a hemiplegic when they announced him that his son, a soldier in Lebanon, had been killed. However this information was erroneous and it is his child whom he believed dead, who carried him in his arms to Soufanieh. Myrna narrates:

"I approached the sick person and I told him: Pray, ask the Virgin Mary to heal you. Shortly after, he rose and stood up, initially with some difficulty, then he walked. His son Mohammed waited outside, praying for his father. And suddenly he sees his father before him, standing. He immediately kneels on the ground and shouts with joy: "Thank you, thank you, oh Virgin Mary." The people shouted: He is healed, he is healed, Hail Mary ... some applauded, others joyfully shouting."

This could remind us of the joyful and prayerful happenings of the Charismatic Renewal.

This same day, Fadi Bahem, a 25 year-old young man carrying in his arms his older brother is brought to Soufanieh. A witness speaks: "His legs were wobbly." Deep inside me, I asked the Lord to forgive me, because I did not know how this person would be healed. But when I saw him leave the house alone on his feet, I almost lost my mind. Was I hallucinating? No, he was walking by himself.

The crowd seeing this young man walking slowly, exulted with joy and sang hymns to the glory of the Virgin Mary. On their way to their home in Mnin, a village (12 kilometres/8 miles) south of Damascus, his eldest brother, a military, when seeing his healed brother arriving, started shooting in the air in jubilation with his revolver.

An eight year old child, Samer Sayegh, taken in the evening to the paediatric hospital in Damascus for a poliomyelitis, insistently asked his parents to be brought to Soufanieh. The child knew about these events from the family which received him because of lack of room at the hospital. His parents initially refused, fearing a hoax that would provoke a trauma to the child. But given the insistence of Samer, they gave in and took him to Soufanieh. Seconds after his arrival, the child started to walk. The following day, his personal physician, doctor Bernard Khozem confirmed the complete recovery. After leaving the doctor's office, Samer and his parents went to thank the Virgin Mary, praying joyously before the icon, in company of Myrna and Nicolas.

But God had not finished on December 19^th, 1982, to bestow upon His children, His Graces.

Mrs. Halaby who endured a calcification of the right arm came to solicit Myrna's prayers and to obtain a piece of cotton moistened with oil. There wasn't any oil available, so she took a small piece of dry cotton, rubbed it on the icon and swallowed it. While going home, a pleasant taste of oil came up her mouth. That same evening, Mrs. Halaby didn't eat, she went to bed with the desire of preserving in her mouth this good taste. The following day, she was healed of her calcification.⁽¹⁷⁾

One can think that these extraordinary healings had been announced to Myrna by the Virgin Mary, in the evening, at the time of an apparition: "I have given you more oil than you asked for. I will give you something stronger than oil."

Voluntarily, we did not proceed with the chronological order of events, a thematic order appeared more appropriate. Indeed, during this period, the Soufanieh events succeeded each other at a rapid pace. These increasing exceptional events, are a positive argument in favor of the supernaturalness of Soufanieh. Would it be humanly possible to imagine them and to fulfill them? Aren't medicine, psychiatry and parapsychology, able to give us an example of extraordinary demonstrations under some particular psychic conditions? These are only school theories that can't be verified simply because they are not occurring on demand, in a controlled way by scientists. Twenty years ago, one spoke a lot of parapsychology, it is still a science in its infancy, although eminent researchers are dedicating themselves to it.

Doctor Antoine Mansour, one of the personal physicians of the former American president Ronald Reagan, whom I met at Soufanieh, was categorical: all known events in the domain of parapsychology that he had knowledge of, are limited to some sporadic demonstrations, and he added: "Here in Soufanieh, it is God who is intervening." Doctor Antoine Mansour was a timid believer, he was converted while witnessing these miraculous events. In the United States, where he practises medicine, he proselytizes in favor of Soufanieh. ⁽¹⁸⁾

THE FIRST APPARITIONS

Myrna was afraid of the Virgin Mary

On December 15^th, 1982, about ten people are in prayer around the icon to the room of the young Nazzour couple. This room, since November 19^th, 1982, has been called: "the Room of the Virgin." Around 23:00, Myrna was showing unusual signs of irritation. Her friend Ghada is sitting close to her and she holds her hands for a few minutes, when suddenly Myrna pulls them away, stands up, and hurriedly goes to the terrace of the house.

She kneels when she arrives on the te