Virgin Mary's likeness appears on bark of suburban Scarborough tree!

London, Aug 28 : An uncanny likeness of the Virgin Mary ormed into the bark of a suburban tree has left local residents ondering if their neighbourhood has been blessed.

Christopher Moreau, who first spotted the tree's markings in his eighbour's garden in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough, believes hat it may have helped the health of his mother-in-law, who ecently recovered from cancer.

"At first I thought I was seeing things. Then I went and got my other-in-law to tell her. She was overwhelmed by it. She was rying," Telegraph quoted him, as saying.

"I don't know why it's there, but I think it's a blessing," he old the Toronto Sun newspaper, adding that he hoped it would elp others looking for a miracle.

"She's not there just for me. She's there to share," he added.

Eulalee Hamilton, Moreau's neighbour and the owner of the tree, aid that she was happy for people to come see the likeness as ong as they did not damage her garden.

Laughing off suggestions that it was a sign from God, she said hat the Virgin Mary image was just the scarring from a limb that as cut off the tree a year ago.

"Chris can have all the people he wants on his back deck but I on't really want people trampling on my garden," she said.

A spokesman for the Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto said that it oes not investigate the veracity of such "appearances".

There have been hundreds of "sightings" of the Virgin Mary down he centuries, but recent years have seen her appearing in ever ore unusual places.

ANI