STRANGE SHRINE AT A HOLY TREE

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3449, 14 February 1912, Page 8

STRANGE SHRINE AT A HOLY TREE

LEGEND CENTURIES OLD SAYS VIRGIN MARY APPEARED UNDER WAYSIDE Oak.

At Remote, a small town near the Hungarian capital, there has just been celebrated a religious service round an oak that has become famous as “the holy tree.” It stands by the side of the main road, so strangely decorated that all who pass that way are bound to take note of this forest shrine. This is its, extraordinary history. Several centuries ago, aceoruing to the Hungarian legend, the Virgin Mary appeared under this tree at midnight after a local fair to celebrate the Christmas festival. The Virgin was surrounded by a luminous cloud which lit up the whole mote, and within a few minutes the oak tree, which had lost its leaves on the approach of-winter, blossomed forth again in verdant foliage, to the astonishment of scores who witnessed it. For a few moments the Holy Virgin stood there, pointing in the direction of Vienna—then suddenly departed, leaving pitch darkness. The peasant witnesses could make nothing of .the portent, but ever sinqe then the tree Ims been regarded as holy. The' original tree perished in course of time, but the peasants grew another one from a living root taken from the parent stem. This .tree still lives, decorated with pictures oi the Madonna. v

Pilgrimages take place to it every year, and at Christmas and'other festivals, there are special religious celebrations.