Oily walls seen as a sign of God’s care for refugees

The B.C. Catholic



An Iraqi mother whose son was killed by a bomb believes the Virgin Mary has appeared to her and consoled her.

Sanaa Ramo said Our Lady has also made oil drip from the walls in her bedroom and has delivered a message: pray for the Middle East.

“She was wearing all white, with a rosary in her hand,” Sanaa told The B.C. Catholic in her small apartment in Surrey’s Guildford neighbourhood. She spoke in Arabic, with a translator, to this reporter Jan. 27.

Oil, odourless and with a faint yellow colour, glistens on the walls of her bedroom. The oil drips into cotton balls and small dishes on the floor and is given away to those who go there to pray.

The room, simply furnished with a bed and a dresser, is now filled with bouquets of flowers, statues and images of Jesus and Mary, rosaries, candles, and crucifixes. Among the religious icons on her dresser is an image of her son, Anas.


Tragedy strikes

Sanaa, a devout Chaldean Catholic, lived in Iraq with her husband, Beebo Alyais Ramo, and seven children. In 2006 they moved from Baghdad’s Al-Dorah neighbourhood to another neighbourhood because of sectarian violence.

Two months later they were preparing a meal when her 17-year-old son, Anas, and an uncle went to buy bread. They never returned. A bomb had torn the bakery apart, killing 35 people.

The family, shaken by the tragedy, left Iraq that November. Sanaa and Beebo have lived in this Surrey apartment for five years.

Sanaa said Anas suddenly appeared to her along with the Blessed Virgin Mary, clad in white, at night on Sunday Jan. 3.

“He was asking: why are you tired, you and my father? And why did my brother, with his family, move out of this apartment?”

Sanaa answered her son’s questions about their family while Mary watched silently. Then Sanaa felt frightened and screamed. Family members rushed to her side, wondering what had happened.

“They said it was just a dream,” Sanaa recalled.


Oil appears

The next day, Sanaa was waking up when she felt someone touch her shoulder from behind. She felt it was coming from the place beside her bed where she kept an image of the Virgin Mary.

That image, which Sanaa has since moved to join the collection on her dresser, shows Mary with her arms extended.

She believes the Blessed Virgin, speaking in Chaldean Aramaic, told her to look at the wall across the room. When she did, she saw two streaks of oil had appeared. Afraid, Sanaa ran to ask neighbours to pray with her. She worried her room was haunted.

Two days later visitors began arriving at the apartment, some believing a miracle had taken place, others to prove nothing supernatural was happening.


Consolation

Near midnight on Tuesday, Sanaa said, the Virgin Mary appeared again.

“The Virgin Mary talked to me and said, ‘I am going to show you something,'” Sanaa recalled, with tears welling up her eyes. “The Virgin Mary gave me my son.”

Sanaa had not been able to see her son after the bomb had exploded in the bakery. Now the Blessed Virgin held Anas in her arms. “She gave me my son, burned, the way he looked after the explosion.”

About two weeks later, Jan. 17, Sanaa said Mary appeared to her with her son again.

She said: “Don’t be afraid about your son. He is with me.” Mary showed her the 12 disciples, and Sanaa understood that it meant Anas was in heaven.


Prayers for Iraq

On Jan. 6, Sanaa said, the Mother of God appeared with a message for the visitors.

“I will make a lot of oil appear on the wall, and you ask people to pray, pray all the time, for all Iraqis, Syrians, Lebanese, who are affected by the chaos, and the migrants, the people in camps, and refugees who are in really bad situations.”

Until that day there had only been two streaks of oil on the wall. After Mary appeared, between 1 and 2 a.m., Sanaa said, oil came in abundance, and plates that they put on the floor to collect it were filled.

Sanaa heard from the Virgin Mary again on Thursday. “I’ll give you more oil for people who have troubles, disabilities, or are sick.”

By this time, the bedroom had become a shrine. Family members guess that at least 1,000 people have come to pray and receive some of the liquid.

Beebo said they come as early as 8 a.m. and have left as late as 4 a.m. “We spent three days without eating or drinking. We were so excited, we didn’t feel hungry.”

“We are happy to do this and we can’t close the door. It’s a special apparition of the Virgin Mary, so we can’t say no to this.”

Aimee Nguyen, a Catholic from Burnaby, heard about the apparent apparitions from a co-worker and came to see the oil for herself Jan. 27.

“She said that it was a miracle, amazing,” Nguyen said. While gazing at an oily wall and the large wooden rosary hanging on it, Nguyen prayed for her family, friends, co-workers, and the Ramo family. “I feel blessed.”


Investigation

So what is going on in that apartment? The property manager hasn’t commented, and asked the Ramo family to limit the hours people come to visit so as not to disturb neighbours.

Sanaa’s pastor, Father Sarmed Biloues of Sts. Peter and Paul Chaldean Catholic Mission, has visited the apartment three times. He called the oil a blessing to the family and a sign to the refugee community that God has not abandoned them.

“I think it’s a sign from the Lord for us, that His mother is with us, especially with the very harsh time in Iraq. Everyone is looking at the news in worry. When we see Our Lady, she makes us comfortable,” he said. “The message is: ‘I am with you. You are not alone.'”

He is collecting information to report to the Archdiocese of Vancouver and has alerted Chaldean Bishop Emanuel Shaleta in Toronto of the phenomenon.