Wood you believe it?
Churchgoers in Russia have begun worshipping a tree after claiming that
religious icons with the faces of Jesus and the saints appeared on its trunk.
The images began to
appear on the birch tree in the village of Burmakino in central Russia's Kirov
Oblast last month in the places where gardeners had trimmed off old branches.
Villager Valentina
Naumova explained: 'We thought nothing of it until the tree started to form
these arched shapes, just like church icons.
'Then the
faces of Jesus and his disciples began to appear in them and we realised this
really must be God's work.
'It seems to me that
they had come to us because they wanted to tell us something.'
The village has had
no church building of its own since it was destroyed by Communists in the
1930s. In the Soviet Union, all church owned property was confiscated and
turned over to public use and most of it - like the property at Burmakino - was
destroyed.
Now whole
congregations of people gather in front of the tree to pray and give thanks.
Icons are powerful
religious images in the Russian Orthodox Church and are believed to be able to
work miracles.
Church leaders are
so impressed with the display they now plan to rebuild the village's church,
the Kazan Divine Mother church.
Spokesman Father
Felix Ozerov explained: 'The holy father has spoken and we are listening.'
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