Virgin Mary stain leaves mark on believers' hearts
Four years later, expressway underpass is still a shrine
Against the wall in a dank and dark underpass, beneath the sounds of constant traffic, it's still there.
A half-dozen flickering candles and a few bouquets of fresh flowers indicate visitors have been to the site very recently.
(Photo by Richard Roeper)
PHOTO GALLERY
Our Lady of the ...
The shrine includes potted plants, hand-made crucifixes, holy cards, a Mexican flag, rosary beads, photos and handwritten messages, in English and Spanish.
RIP Eric
RIP Carlos
Elani . . . died 9/25/08
Help us please Mother Mary
Wow. I wouldn't label this is a miracle, but it is an impressively sustained show of faith, whether you believe that faith is admirable, misguided or just plain nuts.
In the spring of 2005, the Kennedy Expy. underpass at Fullerton was an unlikely, absurdist centerpiece of worldwide media attention after some folks claimed a salt stain was actually the image of the Virgin Mary.
Apparently she was taking a break from appearing on tacos, on the sides of homes and on shower floors.
When I visited the shrine in April of '05, there was a long line of faithful waiting to touch the "holy image," to leave flowers or photos or candles, to pray, to take pictures of themselves with the miracle. Some wept at the site. Three squad cars -- one with doors open and lights flashing -- were parked at the scene to keep the peace.
It was madness.
As for the so-called image of the Virgin Mary, I wrote:
"At any given moment, there are about 100 million stains forming on walls and on shower floors and in refrigerators. Occasionally you'll get one that looks like Jesus or the Virgin Mary; just as often, you'll get one that looks like Cedric the Entertainer or Kelly Clarkson."
But people believe what they want to believe, and as long as it causes no harm to themselves or others, God bless. In most cases, whether it's a "weeping statue" in a church or an image of St. John the Baptist in a burrito, at some point the faithful move on, the media move on, everyone moves on.
The story of Our Lady of the Underpass was advanced a few times. In May 2005, someone covered the image with dark brown paint and writing "BIG LIE" on the wall. Two Catholic women removed the paint and scribblings with an industrial-strength cleaner, in the process erasing some of the image -- but that didn't deter the faithful from returning with their flowers and cards and candles and photos.
In 2008, the Trib noted graffiti taggers had "traced faint eyes and a gaping mouth" onto the image, "as if mocking Munch's 'The Scream.' "
Last spring, we were reminded of the story when the Greenhouse Theater on North Lincoln presented "Our Lady of the Underpass" by Tanya Saracho, who wrote the well-received play based on interviews she conducted at the original site.
Somewhere along the way, what with the graffiti and the clean-up, more graffiti and another clean-up, the original "vision" was lost to time.
Yet, they still keep coming.
Where there was once a supposed image of the Virgin Mary, there's now a framed photo showing that old image.
Tributes to deceased loved ones that were penned in 2005 and 2006 are long gone, supplanted by newer scribblings about friends or relatives who died in the last couple of years.
There's a garbage can just to the left of the shrine, yet someone had deposited some trash on the ground. One man's spot of worship is another man's garbage bin.
I've stopped at the shrine a couple of times over the last few weeks. Only once did I see someone praying at the shrine, and he wasn't interested in commenting.
But obviously other people are coming here on a regular basis. Somebody's lighting those candles, and I don't think it's a vampires or spirits of the night.
Four years, and still going strong.
I'm not talking about the salt stain. I'm talking about the faith of those who want to believe something miraculous happened on that wall in 2005, and they're not about to let it be forgotten.