'Miraculous' stone with image of Mary 'grows' in Bicol

MANILA, Philippines - A Catholic bishop has confirmed the existence of a ‘miraculous,’ "growing" stone in Catanduanes which bears the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary and is said to heal illnesses. “What is unexplainable is not that the stone grew in size over the years, but the fact that the image of the Virgin was never distorted as it grew," Virac Bishop Manolo A. De Los Santos said in a news report posted on the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) website Friday. Bishop De Los Santos said the stone has been in Barangay Paloway in San Andres town, Catanduanes for over a century now. According to a story told to him by a certain Mr. Antonio—who is now 90 years old—a young boy found the stone while playing along the shores of San Andres. “The small stone bore a faint drawing of a part of the Virgin Mary’s face. When the boy reached his home, he experienced a terrible pain in the stomach. To alleviate the pain, the boy rubbed the stone and the pain immediately subsided," said the CBCP news report. The incident spread around the village and since then, residents acknowledged it as “miraculous." Now called “Batong Paloway (Stone of Paloway)," the stone is at the altar of the Our Lady of Sorrows chapel in Barangay Paloway in San Andres town. The image is called “Our Lady of Sorrows." The growing stone Based on the accounts of the residents, the stone originally only bore a part of the face of the Blessed Virgin. Now 3 inches in height, the stone has the full image of the Virgin Mary’s face and “shows her finger pointing somewhere." Many devotees flock to the Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows in San Andres especially during Fridays where a mass is celebrated in the afternoon. San Andres maybe reached by taking a 3-hour ferry ride from the Port of Tabaco City, a 45 minutes drive from Legazpi City. According to the Bishop, the chapel has not been declared formally or canonically as a shrine although it can be said that it is a “de facto shrine." - GMANews.TV