This type of unusual phenomenon is very similar to one that can be observed in the Monastery of the Prophet Elias in Patras, Greece. There Elder Gervasios Paraskevopoulos planted three trees and when they were going to cut them down years later crucifixes also appeared within all three with a Byzantine-style to them. Miraculous healings have also been attributed to those Crosses. This one is particularly unusual for being red and having what looks like a candle on top of the Cross formation. It's hard to label something like this a miracle, especially when we should avoid seeing the supernatural in things that may be natural (like an image of Jesus on a piece of toast or of the Virgin Mary on a foggy window or a Cross in the clouds) lest we be ridiculed and give forth a false testimony without discernment. But there is power in the Cross and great blessing, so at the very least I would consider this a blessed tree and, like the Crosses of Elder Gervasios in Patras, are worthy of veneration for what they depict.
April 28, 2009
Interfax
A resident of the Moldavian village of Kodryany cut down an old ash-tree and in the cut he saw a drawing very similar to an image of a cross and a burning candle.
“It’s usually very easy to cut down a tree, and here I was facing a difficulty. And the inner bark wasn’t white as usual, but bright red. It was very difficult to cut it, but when I did, I looked at the cut and, oh good heaven!, there was a scarlet cross and a burning candle below it! I was shocked!” Pavel Boyko was quoted as saying by the Moldavian edition of the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily.
Members of the Boyko family are believers and frequent churchgoers and like their ancestors, they chant in a church choir.
According to Pavel’s daughter Anzhela, when they called for Fr. Sergy, rector of St. Nicholas Church located nearby, the priest stared at the drawing for a long time and then said, “It is a Theophany.”
Fr. Sergy took a picture and then sent it to his ruling bishop.
“I don’t know what to think about this phenomenon. I’ve seen this before, in Ukraine, in the Vinnitsa Region. I reported everything to the Dean, and they told me that I should keep this cut in the church. Perhaps, it’s a sign from God. We hope that it’s a good sign,” the priest says.
Meanwhile, pilgrims started coming to the Boyko house. People are arriving from neighboring villages to see the alleged miracle.