Case file · Apparition / miracle
Our Lady of Soufanieh
From November 1982 a small icon in the Damascus home of Myrna Nazzour was reported to exude olive oil; she also reported visions of the Virgin and stigmata.
1982 CE · 33.52, 36.32 · status: disputed
The account
Crowds of Christians and Muslims came to the house, and local Orthodox and Catholic clergy were sympathetic. Nazzour travelled widely with the icon.
The sceptical view
The Vatican has not recognised the events; critics point to the lack of controlled testing of the oil.
The researched reading
An oil-exuding icon and visions in a private home, never tested under control. Human application and devotion explain it better than a miracle.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Undetermined | 35% | The share the reading had given to fabrication on doubt rather than evidence: the record does not settle it either way. |
| A cultural story | 25% | Ecumenical devotion and the visionary’s travels turned the icon into a symbol of Christian unity, which encouraged acceptance. |
| Perception, memory or mind | 20% | Visions, stigmata and witnessed oil flows fit a pattern of mystical experience and expectant observers. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 10% | Some clergy and doctors testified to unexplained oil flows, but none in controlled conditions. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 5% | An icon exuding oil in the visionary’s own home, with no controlled testing of the oil, is the pattern of most debunked weeping images; oil is easy to apply. |
| A known natural phenomenon | 5% | Oil seeping from a varnished icon or a porous mount is possible, but not in the volumes claimed. |
Official position: Local Orthodox and Catholic clergy were sympathetic; the Vatican has not recognised the events.