The bleeding cross of Malabar

In St Thomas's Church, Malabar, India, there was for a long time a stone cross which bled on Christmas Eve as soon as the Jesuits started to say mass. The stone changed from white to yellow, then to black, azure, then, at the end of mass, back to white, while blood flowed from the monument. If the miracle failed to appear, there would be a calamity in the area.

William Hone, the 19th-Century English folklorist, wrote, "Perhaps it is further miraculous, that in a country where there is liberty of thought and speech, and a free press, no stone cross will do the like".

Categories: saints, christmas, mysteries, india, calendar+customs