November 26
Our Lady of Soufanieh, Damascus, Syria
On November 22, 1982,
a group of women in the Damascus suburb of Soufanieh gathered in prayer around
the bed of Leila, who was in acute pain. The group included Leila's mother and
older sister, as well as her brother's wife Myrna and several friends and
neighbors of different faiths. Mayada Kozaly, a Muslim, seeing light, then oil,
streaming from Myrna's hands, cried out, "What's on your hands?" After
some moments of initial shock, Myrna placed her oozing hands on her
sister-in-law, whose pain vanished instantly.[1] Thus began the spiritual career of Myrna, a
member of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, then only 18 and recently married
to Nicolas Nazzour, of the Antiochan Greek Orthodox Church.
Five days later, oil began oozing from a small picture of Our Lady of Kazan in Myrna and Nicolas's home—an icon both Catholics and Orthodox Christians revere, known for miracles and healings. With a six-week break early in 1983, when it stayed in the nearby Orthodox church, and a year's break in 1985-86, oil flowed from the Nazzours' icon until November 26, 1990. Labs in Syria, Germany, France, and Italy all found it to be olive oil. The icon shed oil again during Holy Week of 2001 and 2017.[2] From the beginning, oil from the icon, like that from Myrna's hands, was associated with miracles of healing. Other holy pictures connected with the Soufanieh devotions produced oil and miracles too.
On December 15, 1982, Myrna saw the Virgin coming from a globe of light in a eucalyptus tree. From then on she repeatedly saw and received messages from both Mary and Jesus, until November 26, 1990, when she reported the Virgin's farewell: "... you are seeing Me for the last time until the feast is unified." Consistent with the seer's personal location in a nexus of faiths, the messages of Soufanieh call for Christian unity, including agreement on the date of Easter, historically different in the western and eastern churches. Often Myrna heard the Virgin repeat the Biblical sayings of Jesus: "Love one another. ... Forbear and forgive. ... Do not fear, I am with you." In an early message from Mary, Myrna learned the affirmation, "God saves me, Jesus enlightens me, the Holy Spirit is my life, thus I fear nothing."
Since 1983, Myrna has occasionally suffered stigmatic wounds during ecstasy, visible to others during the day and completely gone by midnight. The position of the hierarchy on the Soufanieh devotions is unclear, supporters claiming blessings and church approval and detractors claiming fraud and church disapproval. Priests and bishops, both Catholic and Orthodox, have celebrated masses in connection with the devotions. Annual anniversary celebrations begin November 26 with mass in a church, followed by evening prayers and festivities at the Nazzours' home, with Myrna, Nicolas, their two children, relatives, friends, and followers. The devotions have continued despite the Syrian civil war, of which Jesus told Myrna in 2014: "The wounds that have bled on this land are the same as those of my body. For their author and cause are the same."[3]-
Christian Ravaz, The Apparitions in Damascus, translated in 1997 from the French edition of 1988, Association Notre-Dame-de-Soufanieh à Montréal, www.soufanieh.com/ENGLISH/eravaz.htm#WHY%20THIS%20OIL? Ravaz's narrative, based on Father Joseph Malouli's French translation of Myrna's Arabic notes, describes the scene this way. Some devotional sources describe only three women of different faiths at the bedside and have the Muslim woman not only notice the oil but urge Myrna to put her hands on the sick woman, evoking a mythic triad of healing women while emphasizing the interfaith nature of the story (e.g. Rick Salbato, The Miracle of Damascus, 1998, www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/694702/posts). I spread that version in earlier editions of this web page. The Association's website, soufanieh.com, is also the source of the photograph above.
- "Icon Weeping Again In Syria," Spirit Daily, April 17, 2017, spiritdaily.org/blog/uncategorized/icon-weeping-again-in-syria
- Nadine Zelhof, "La Vierge de Soufanieh pour l’unité des chrétiens d’Orient et d’Occident," Aleteia, fr.aleteia.org/2018/04/27/la-vierge-de-soufanieh-pour-lunite-des-chretiens-dorient-et-doccident/
Also commemorated this date:
 | Inmaculada Concepción, Alhendín, Granada, Andalucia, Spain (Immaculate Conception). Statue arrived, 1656, commemorated annually; processes every 5 years during Fiestas Grandes 3rd Sunday of August (2019, 2024). |
| Virgen de las Huertas, Lorca, Murcia, Spain (Virgin of the Gardens). Statue crowned, 1944. Fiesta September 8. Town patron. |
| Virgen de Belén, San Mateo, Aragua, Venezuela (Virgin of Bethlehem). Image emerged from ground, 1709, commemorated annually. |