[occalmnab]

I am just trying to track down some information regarded a purported miracle in Syria from late 2003. Supposedly a moslem man looking whose wife was barran sought the interession of the Theotokos at a monastery in Syria and promised to give generously both to the monastery and the cabbie who took him there if he and his wife got pregnant. She did and when he returned to pay his vow the cabbie and friends decided they wanted all the money for themselves took the man, murdered and dismembered him and threw the body pieces in the trunk so they could take them elsewhere for disposal. They broke down on the highway and police who were alerted to blood dripping from the car came to them but when the trunk was opened the murdered man stood up bloody but whole and declared the Panagia had just then finished putting him back together. The murderers went mad and the story caused a sensation in that part of the world. It has been picked up and reposed on several Orthodox sites from Boise to Serbia, to Russia.

Potentially very inspiring story if true however, I found one internet poster who said He could not verify any particulars of the story. He said he called the Sayeedna monastery in Syria and though they knew of the story they denied their involvement. He could not verify the reportage of the event with Syrian media, and he also said he could not find a Monastery of the Shepherds in or near Bethlehem or its supposed abbot Fr. Ignatius who supposedly first began diseminating the story. Yet on another site a poster also looking for verification said that he had called the monastery of the Shepherds and talked to Fr. Ignatius who was a little fearful of Muslim reprisals in the aftermath of the story but still confirmed it.

So my questions are...Is there a Monastery of the Shepherds in or near Bethlehem with some association with the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre? Was there or is there such a monk/abbot as Fr. Ignatius with that Monastery, if it exits. Would fear of reprisals (because of active and potential conversions)by Muslims lead Christians there to keep mum about such a miracle? And is there any independant verificataion or debunking of this story. Most of what I see is just repostings of the same story, and since I don't read Greek or Arabic, or Syrian I can't check information from those quarters.

Thus find myself curious, hopeful...but cautious in the interim. Any additional info?

Here is where I first saw the story: http://manastir-lepavina.org/novosti...s_boise_idaho/