Chicago, USA - The faithful have flocked to a freeway underpass in Chicago to kneel at the foot of a water stain many say is an apparition of the Virgin Mary.
A crowd of believers braved a bitter wind to stand beneath the roaring freeway. Most stood in silence, awaiting their turn to touch and pray before the image.
Dressed in a white cap and coat, one woman knelt for several minutes before reaching out to touch the stain. With tears streaming down her face, she retreated to the other side of the underpass, where she clutched a rosary and a book of philosophy while she watched the ebb and flow of the devoted.
"This is the first time I've felt something so deep in my heart. There's something in the air. Her energy is here," Raven Leroux said.
"It's a combination of incredible sadness that human beings have forgotten how to love God, then this joy by realizing that these stories are real," the 57-year-old said as she tried to describe her feelings. "God will never leave us. He'll always send some sign."
News of the image, discovered April 10 by a woman named Obdulia Delgado, spread slowly through the city's Catholic community -- until a local television station aired a story Monday.
By late Wednesday, the shrine beneath the grey and yellow marking had grown to dozens of candles and a blanket of flowers. Two flags and a poster of the late Pope John Paul II covered much of the graffiti, including a scrawled message stating "Satan loves u." A big white sign saying "emergency parking only" glowed from the light of camera flashes.
Francisco Perez pushed his way to the back of the crowd and leaned against a barrier that police had erected to control the crowds.
"You can see her," he said as he showed his two young boys a picture he'd taken on his handheld computer. And his son, Brandon, who hadn't recognized the image on the wall, became a believer.
"I saw her on the Palm," the 9-year-old boy said, bringing tears to his father's eyes.
"I want them to believe what I honestly feel is happening," the 39-year-old security guard said. "I think there's a message of peace, of happiness."
The Archdiocese of Chicago has not yet been asked to authenticate the image.
"Apparitions like this are very personal revelations," spokesman Jim Dwyer said. He said while the Church does not encourage such devotions, it welcomes any opportunity for people to renew their faith.