Here’s a look at a Christmas apparition in Clearwater, Florida that believers say was a miraculous appearance of the Virgin Mary (Saint Mary) and skeptics say was caused by natural forces rather than supernatural ones.

A Striking Image Appears on a Building’s Windows

Shortly before Christmas 1996, on December 17, an image that looked like an outline of Mary in rainbow colors appeared on the windows of an office building in Clearwater, Florida.


The colorful streaks on the building’s windows bore a striking resemblance to traditional depictions of Mary: a figure of a woman wearing a robe and a veil. The massive image – nearly 60 feet tall and 20 feet wide – took up nine large windows, with blue, yellow, green, red, and purple streaks flowing together to create a glowing, shimmering shape that distinctly evoked a stained glass portrait of Mary.

The image quickly attracted people’s attention. As news of the event spread, locals began gathering outside the building to see the image for themselves. Soon people began traveling to Clearwater to check out the image. Some made the trip to satisfy their curiosity about the image by studying it in person. Others made pilgrimages of faith to pray and worship God in front of the image. Crowds made up of people from all around the world flooded into the area to check out the image that seemed to be of Mary. So many people visited that city officials had to install new traffic lights to handle the increased flow of people around the building.

Was it a Miraculous Christmas Gift?

Believers said that the image was a genuine apparition of Mary that was made supernaturally. They said they felt a powerful sense of hope when they were in the presence of the image. The fact that the image appeared during the height of the Christmas season – about one week prior to Christmas – seemed like a sign that Mary was calling people to prepare themselves spiritually to celebrate the birthday of her son, Jesus Christ.

Those who believed that the image was a miraculous Christmas gift to inspire deeper faith in people set up chairs outside the building and held worship services there. A steady stream of people continued to visit, pray, worship, and give money to support local charities near the image until several months after the Christmas season ended.

The building’s owner, Mike Krizmanich, declared himself a believer. He was so inspired by Mary’s apparition, he said, that he planned to preserve and protect the image of her by turning the building from a finance office space to a religious shrine. Krizmanich later sold the building to a Christian ministry organization.

Was it Just Water Condensation or Chemical Corrosion?

Skeptics said that the image was just the result of a natural process of some kind. They first attributed the image to the sun reflecting off water condensation on the glass, pointing out that sprinklers outside the building had watered palm trees near the glass windows and that the palm trees had recently been cut down, revealing the image that looked like Mary.

When the image remained on the building beyond the time that condensed water from the sprinklers could have lasted, skeptics declared that the image must have been caused by a chemical reaction that corroded the metallic parts of the glass coating in the windows.

Vandalism

Curious people continued to visit the building in Clearwater for years after the image first appeared there, debating whether or not the image was miraculous. In 2004, a ministry worker arriving on the job at the building discovered that it had been vandalized overnight. The top three panes of glass – those that had shown what appeared to be Mary’s head – were destroyed, with only broken shards of glass remaining in the window frames. A local teenager later confessed to police that he had vandalized the building using a slingshot that fired ball bearings.

The vandalism put an end to the crowds of people who had previously come to Clearwater to see the image that looked like Mary. But people still debate the image’s meaning during the Christmas season as they recall when it drew worldwide attention soon after appearing. In 2005, bulletproof glass was installed over the part of the image that hadn’t been vandalized, to preserve the remaining part.