By Elizabeth Mehren, Times Staff Writer

MILTON, Mass. -- MILTON, Mass. — The image was unmistakable, Mary O'Toole said Monday as she gazed up at the third-floor window of Milton Hospital.

"I see the outline of the Blessed Mother," said O'Toole, clutching bright blue rosary beads. "It looks like there are flowers at her feet. It looks like she is holding an infant."

Thousands of pilgrims have flocked to the hospital parking lot since a frosty white representation became visible almost a week ago. Hospital officials say the shadowy pattern is the result of condensation. But believers from around New England say the Virgin Mary has appeared in this bedroom community south of Boston.

Many brought flowers or photographs of loved ones. Some knelt on the asphalt, praying softly. Others joined hands and sang hymns. Some touched the brick building.

"I didn't really see it at first," said Jim D'Amico, 15, of nearby Canton. "But then I saw her, holding the Baby Jesus."

His mother, Karen D'Amico, said she brought her son to the parking lot after her mother-in-law made three visits to the makeshift shrine.

"I think she is sending us a message," Karen D'Amico said. "And the message is: Pray for peace."

Some said another theme was at work.

"This is about abortion," said Pauline Pace, from neighboring Quincy. "Can't you see the baby in her arms? She is trying to tell us to hang on to our children."

Abortions are not performed at Milton Hospital, a hospital official said, and the window where the pattern appeared belongs to an eye doctor's office. Susan Schepici, the hospital's director of public relations, said a brick wall was placed inside the office in front of the window several years ago to darken the room.

She said the glass company told her a permanent seal on the window had broken, allowing condensation to develop. Schepici said no one at the hospital knows when the window design was first spotted, or by whom.

"People just began showing up," she said. "Suddenly, you could hear people talking about it in the halls. It just kind of grew from there."

According to a Web site maintained by the Marian Library at the University of Dayton in Ohio, 386 Virgin Mary sightings were reported in the 20th century.

Several worshipers at the hospital speculated Monday that the Virgin Mary came to the Boston area to offer solace from the sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the church here, but archdiocese spokesman Father Christopher Coyne said it was too soon to comment on the legitimacy of the image or its possible implications.

Church policy permits local bishops to verify apparitions of the Virgin Mary.

Jim Murphy of Weymouth, Mass., said the image required no authentication.

"It's very obvious," he said, pointing at the window.

His wife, Maureen, added: "I just think that the Blessed Mother is here to warn us, to tell us to turn back to our faith, to turn back to humanity She is here to make us think."

But for some patients and hospital administrators, the figure was causing more congestion than contemplation. Schepici said the hospital had to add extra security to accommodate more than 1,000 people Sunday.

"Right now we are just trying to manage the crowds and make sure the patients have access to the hospital," she said.

It's like that thread about the poor kid born with 2 mouths and 4 eyes and everything else, and people came from far and wide believing it was the incarnation of one of the Hindu gods.

You see what you want to see, and these things are usually culturally defined. Nobody is saying the image in the window is Diana or Artemis or Isis or Freya. Of course it's the Virgin Mary, because America is a Christian country.

Proof again, for hundreds of people, that Christianity (and every interpretation of Christianity and everything that people choose to believe is part and parcel of Christianity) is the only true way.

well i think that some people make a mountian out of a mole hill - they shouldn't need physical things to know that God is in their presence- it can be interpreted so many ways i don't get the abortion thing - i better shut up before i say something to offed somne

I said this somewhere else, but I'll say it here as well, why do the people always see Mary holding a baby Jesus, I thought he supposedly died when he was about 35.

I agree, people see what they want to see, if they are thinking that they are seeing a shape in the window or whatever and it has a fatter body than head area, people say that it is the Virgin Mary, instead of something else, it would be interesting to see what people of other religions see.

yeh, why dont people say they see jesus hanging from a crusafix, or covered in the cloth they put him in when he died

I am Jesus hanging from a crusifix...nah...as its said..somebody said that they took a picture of Jesus on a crusifix but all it was, was their Jesus at their church flipped around.

QUOTE

You see what you want to see, and these things are usually culturally defined. Nobody is saying the image in the window is Diana or Artemis or Isis or Freya. Of course it's the Virgin Mary, because America is a Christian country.

Well said Aslan.

I think some people are easily influenced by their culture and I think others just want to believe in something so bad they are able to see into things too much and see what isn't really there.

kind of like seeing a hydrogen balloon inflation unit as a mobile bioweapons lab?

Now now

aslan, you have inspired me to animate my avatar...a shoddy job at that, but it works i guess.

But if you look at my avatar, it is in actual fact saying something deep and profound to those with 'the knowlege', yours meanwhile, is merely drinking in it's dentures in a profoundly disturbing manner.

well, at least we both achieved our desired results then.

Well said!

Actually I Lip read and all I can work out your avatar is saying Aslan is

Squish , squish , squish .... I don't get it

Dust 19 your Avatar is just funky enough

LOL @ Aslan & Dust19





Dust19 your avatar gave me the creeps before, now it's down right scary

QUOTE (Aslan @ Jun 18 2003, 10:27 PM)

But if you look at my avatar, it is in actual fact saying something deep and profound......

Just coincidentally, Aslan, MC happened to mention that fact just the other day. To me, it just looks like someone chewing bubblegum, albeit rather enthusiastically.

back to the topic at hand...

i don't think most Americans are catholic, so why would you attribute a Mary sighting to culture?

i believe that on occasion, people can see Mary. i don't understand why, but there are several credible examples of these sightings occurring. maybe its like seeing a ghost- some people can see them and some can't. maybe these people do see her and even if its just condensation, i don't see the harm in them getting all spiritual. we need more spirituality in this country.

QUOTE

i don't think most Americans are catholic, so why would you attribute a Mary sighting to culture?

Who said most most Americans are catholic?

The point was that most Americans are christian, which is certainly true. And what else are you going to attribute a Mary sighting to? The objective existence of Mary on a pane of glass?

If it happened in India, nobody would claim it was Mary, would they.

christians don't see Mary. catholics see Mary.

catholics pray to Mary and believe she is a figure that can hear their prayers. a baptist would not believe in Mary like this, only that she is the mother of Jesus. if a baptist saw this they would not assume it was Mary- a catholic might.

the vampire myth has been fashioned by christianity. as they are scared of by the crussifix, but how could they if they have been around before the crussifixtion. same with holy water, cept lots of religions have holy water, so maybe that is just blessed water

You have a point there Phantom

Can we get some images of this, please...I love seeing stressed deities (no pun intended)

I would see Thor´s wife "Siv" with their kid "Mode"

But if people want to belive it´s Mary, let them do that.
If it makes them feel good.
It doesn´t hurt anybody?

Just for fun:

Vikings info

personally it looks to me as tho aslans avatar is saying wazoo...

oh and about the topic, nobody actually knows what mary or Jesus looked like, and in all those catholic churches, it shows a 30 year old lookin mary holdin Jesus, when she was actually about 14 when she had Him. Serah