It says the man, then known as Francis Pietro, was told: “Francis, repair my church.”

He would later start collecting money to rebuild the church located at San Damiano in Italy, according to catholic.org. This saw his father disown him, but his actions before his death in 1226, aged 45, earned him the title of a saint. He is now known as St Francis of Assisi.

CHURCH BUILDING

His experience with the crucifix, an integral part of any Catholic Church building, is one of the many tales in the Catholic tradition that link the statue of Jesus with mysterious powers.

This Easter period, special attention has been paid to the crucifixes in Catholic churches as happens every year. By the time you read this, two things will have happened at a Catholic church near you: its main crucifix will have been unwrapped and all church decorations restored.

“The crucifix is usually covered in cloth after the Palm Sunday and uncovered on Good Friday. The covering is a symbolic call to reflect on the time that Christ was on earth before his death and resurrection,” explains Kakamega Catholic Bishop Joseph Obanyi.

In some churches, the unwrapping of the crucifix happens after Christians have completed a Saturday night vigil that symbolises the wait for Christ to resurrect.

Miracles centred on the crucifix, though not many have been preserved for generations despite an insistence by the Catholic Church that its focus isn’t on miracles but on communion with God.

Some of the mysteries are part of a collection by American author Joan Carroll Cruz in her 2009 book, Miraculous Images of Our Lord. On the book’s cover is a photo of what is believed to be the actual crucifix that spoke to St Francis of Assisi.

Caroll says her book contains “42 true accounts about miraculous manifestations of our Lord from various parts of the globe”.

In addition to the St Francis one, another alleged miracle is an incident where the eyes of Jesus on a crucifix came to life as witnessed in 1914 by Don Antonio Lopez, a priest based in Limpias village located in northern Spain.

Lopez claims he was cleaning the statue when its eyelids moved.

“As I was gazing at the crucifix with the closest attention, I noticed with astonishment that our Lord’s eyes were gradually closing and for five minutes I saw them quite closed,” Caroll quotes Lopez in her book.

Bishop Obanyi told the Sunday Nation that such miracles happen for a specific reason. “It is not every day that a miracle happens. So, when it occurs, there is a special message being communicated by God,” he said.

“If miracles had no relatable meaning, perhaps Jesus could have healed everyone on earth during his stay,” he said.

The Catholic Church has guidelines on occurrences it can admit as miracles. According to the Catholic Encyclopaedia, not every claim can be admitted — the dignity and seriousness of God has to be shown in them.

The encyclopaedia classifies revelations as either universal or private, and that the church admits them when it finds out that they are for public good.

“When the Church approves private revelations, it declares only that there is nothing in them contrary to faith or good morals, and that they may be read without danger or even with profit; no obligation is thereby imposed on the faithful to believe them,” the encyclopaedia says.

The Catholic Church says the qualities of a person claiming to have had a vision are also looked into. Such qualities are mental status, education, previous behaviour, among others. Such revelations are among factors considered before declaring a dead Christian a saint.

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