Case file · Apparition / miracle
Mariam Dearit, the Madonna in the baobab
Outside Keren in Eritrea a statue of the Virgin Mary stands inside the hollow of an ancient baobab; local tradition says that in 1941 Italian soldiers sheltering in the tree survived a British air attack that struck it.
1941 CE · 15.79, 38.47 · status: legend
The account
The shrine dates from the 19th century, when a Marian statue was placed in the trunk. During the Battle of Keren in 1941, the story goes, a bomb hit the tree but the soldiers and the statue were unharmed. Catholics and Orthodox Christians, and some Muslims, make a pilgrimage there for the feast in late May. The point is approximate, a couple of kilometres from the town.
The sceptical view
The 1941 episode is told in devotional and travel sources, not in military records.