The Legend of the Colfax Virgin Mary Miracles

"...drew thousands of viewers from as far as Alaska and Texas in November 1990, when it first appeared above the church's organ... As many as 4,000 visitors lined up before the church one Saturday, forcing the city to close Oak Street..."

Colfax, Placer County - A bishop joined throngs of people packing a Placer County church to see a shining image on the wall that devout Catholics claim is an apparition of the Virgin Mary. ... 'It could be the image of the Blessed Mary in a silhouette pose,' Bishop Francis Quinn of the Sacramento Diocese said Tuesday. ... The image has been appearing for about an hour each morning since Thanksgiving, bringing throngs of the devout and curious to the 40- year-old church along Interstate 80 northeast of Auburn. ... Some viewers say the image, which also resembles the profile of a rabbit head, could be a reflection from a stained glass window. ... 'For those who believe, no explanation is necessary,' Quinn said. 'And for those who not believe, no explanation is possible.' [Press Democrat, December 6, 1990 (AP)]

Colfax, Placer County - The day before the shining apparition that some believe represents the Virgin Mary began appearing at St. Dominic's church, the hanging light fixtures in the sanctuary were stabilized with wire -- perhaps setting the stage for a reflection that could create the image. ... 'It might explain it,' said parishioner Edmund 'Mick' Molloy, whose father Ed Molloy is the parish coordinator. ... Molloy said the work was done Wednesday afternoon just before Thanksgiving. ... 'So on Thanksgiving morning we have this reflection,' Molloy said. [Press Democrat, December 7, 1990 (McClatchy News Service)]

Colfax, Placer County - Yesterday's crowd of pilgrims, some of whom arrived at midnight, saw a blue-gray light form over the right shoulder of a five- foot statue of Jesus near the altar of the 40-year-old Catholic church. For some, the shimmering light that turned green-pink bore the shape of a shawl covering a woman's head and shoulders. Sometimes the image was sharp; other times it was fuzzy. The eerie image appeared about 9:30 a.m., as it has every day since Thanksgiving, and remained for about an hour. At one point, a second light gold in color and resembling the shape of a crown or halo briefly appeared directly above the first image. At the moment the gold light appeared, many people in the line outside said they spotted a rainbow over the church. Inside the 200-seat church, pilgrims gasped, prayed, wept and stared at the image. ...According to James Phelps, a physics professor at Sacramento State University, the image is a phenomenon caused by natural light refracting through a stained-glass window and then bouncing off a light fixture and onto the wall. 'There's nothing exotic, nothing esoteric about it,' said the optics expert, who observed the image at the request of a local newspaper. [Martin Halstuk, San Francisco Chronicle, December 8, 1990]

Colfax, Placer County - A mysterious light on a church wall that many believed was a divinely inspired image of the Virgin Mary did not appear yesterday amid heavy clouds, seeming to confirm the theory it was merely sunlight shining through stained-glass window. ... When the image failed to appear at its customary time, however, the worshipers trooped out, some in dismay. ... Church officials had been considering an investigation to determine whether the appearance of the image, which looked like the outline of the top half of a figure, was a miracle. [San Francisco Chronicle, December 11, 1990 (Chronicle Wire Services)]