c. 1997 Religion News Service

WORCESTER, Mass. _ The Rev. George V. Joyce was returning from a pilgrimage to Medjugorje, Bosnia, when he first heard about miraculous deeds occurring just 40 miles from his hometown of Holyoke, Mass.

Joyce had seen the large crowds in the Bosnian town where many believe the Virgin Mary has appeared, only to hear that a smaller number of the faithful were gathering at the Worcester home of Audrey M. Santo.

Beginning in 1991, visitors to the bedridden young girl claimed to be healed or witnessed stigmata _ wounds or rashes on Audrey’s hands, feet, side and head like those of a suffering Jesus. In recent years, family, clergy and visitors say religious statues in her room have wept blood or oil.

Thousands have flocked to see Audrey, prompting the Bishop Daniel P. Reilly of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester to name a special panel to investigate.

Diocesan spokesman Ray Delisle said a three-member commission will investigate what is happening at the home. There is no deadline for its findings to be reported to the bishop. The diocese has not taken a position on whether miracles are happening, he added.

“If there are circumstances that strengthen people’s faith, that’s fine,” Delisle said.

Speaking recently at the 13-year-old girl’s home, Joyce _ spiritual adviser to the Santo family _ recalled his first visit in January 1991.

Joyce, who lives at Our Lady of Hope Church rectory in Springfield, Mass., said he did not initially find anything out of the ordinary. What he saw was a small girl whose hands moved slightly and whose eyes seemed to react to her surroundings but who otherwise had been uncommunicative since her near-drowning in 1987.

“But I did go back feeling something in me _ it was a disposition toward her,” the 82-year-old priest said. “A couple of days later, (the family) asked me to be their spiritual director.”

Since then, Joyce said, he has seen blood appear on communion hosts during Masses celebrated at the Santo home.

Tests on two of the four hosts that have reportedly bled since 1991 showed the presence of human blood, according to the former California Laboratory of Forensic Science in Yorba Linda, Calif., where evidence in the O.J. Simpson trial was also tested.

Joyce said there is no earthly way blood could have gotten on the host as he celebrated Mass before a videotape documentary crew June 5, 1996.

“What struck me as I was holding that host that was bleeding _ here I am a priest for 54 years _ and what I had really believed in my heart all my life came alive in my hands during the Mass,” he said.

Joyce said he has also seen what appears to be blood coming from inside the tabernacle in Audrey’s bedroom.

Visitors to Audrey’s room find oil stains on the faces of dozens of statues of Mary and Jesus. In the garage-turned-chapel, oil _ historically used for blessings or to anoint the sick _ is found on a painting of the Last Supper, crucifixes and statues.

At the Santo home, Mass is celebrated each Wednesday before a crowd of up to 75 people. Services are booked through December 1998 with hundreds on a waiting list for 1999.

More than 4,000 people attended a Mass in Audrey’s honor last month at nearby Christ the King Church. It was celebrated by 62 priests, including clergy from Canada, Mexico and the Vatican.

Audrey’s mother, Linda L. Santo, said she believes God has chosen her daughter to show the value he places on his creatures.

“Audrey does two things. She brings people to Jesus, back to the sacraments, (and) back to the church,” Linda Santo said. “She is a statement of life in our culture of death … . Whether you call it infanticide, homicide or genocide, it’s the wrong side.”

To skeptics, Linda Santo quotes the adage, “For those who believe, there is no explanation needed; for those who don’t believe, no explanation will suffice.”

When the first signs occurred in 1987, Linda Santo said she was never fearful _ just “surprised, shocked and … blown away.”

“You see these things on videos and you read about them in books _ they don’t happen in your house,” she said. “This is not a church or a shrine or a basilica. It’s a regular house.”

Family friend Mary V. Cormier said the Santoses are extraordinary.

The care that Audrey requires is extensive, and the family balances that with visits by scores of the faithful each month, she said.

Linda Santo is home with her daughter around the clock, while her husband works for an office management firm. Audrey is the youngest of their four children.

Joyce said the incidents have strengthened the faith of the clergy who come to see the girl.

“It’s awakening priests to the nobility and the reality of their priesthood,” he said.

There is one special miracle Joyce said he would like God to perform _ returning Audrey to full health.

Doctors expected Audrey would live a matter of weeks at home _ perhaps two years under institutional care, her mother said.

But a decade later, the 71-pound girl remains in her near-coma.

Joyce said he did not entertain thoughts Audrey would recover when he met her in 1991.

Now, he isn’t so sure.

“I’d like to live long enough to see that,” Joyce said. “Oh, what she could tell us.”

DEA END KELLY