"Holy water" from Jesus statue was toilet water. Miracle buster had to flee country

A Statue of Jesus dripping water from its toes

In 2012, a drip of water started to flow continuously from the toes of a statue of Jesus at the church of Our Lady of Velankanni in western Mumbai. People believed this as a miracle. People over there and the devotees flocked to the place to watch the miraculous drip. Devotees even drank that water hoping that it would cure their illness.

Sanal Edamaruku is an Indian professional myth-buster and the founder and president of Rationalist International. He was challenged to investigate the drip keeping in mind that Indians have more belief in supernatural causality. He took one of his friends who was an engineer for investigating about the drip.

He found the wall on which the statue was mounted was filled with moisture and it seemed to come from an overflow drain. He traced the nearby washrooms and drainage systems that passed underneath the base of the cross.

In the sequence of his investigation, he removed some stones from the drain and found that it was blocked. And then he finally found the reason behind the water dripping from the toes of the statue of Jesus. It was the water from the washroom which had been blocked in the drain was transmitted into the adjacent walls through capillary action. The was transmitted to the base of the cross and even into the wooden cross. This water dripped from the statue’s feet via a small hole. And finally, this miracle ended up in an incorrect plumbing.

This was presented on a live television channel by Edamaruku along with a group of Catholics supporting him. But the devotees were gathered with sticks outside that he was giving a wrong statement on their belief.

Actually, they were not angry that the miracle was found to be false. Instead, they were annoyed that he insulted the Catholic church had manufactured the miracle to make money.

After his investigation, some of the Catholic groups had filed cases against him in three police stations in Mumbai. He found that he got some threatening phone calls from policemen and also online comments too had threatened him.

After which he went to Finland where he had friends and it was the first country to give him the visa. His friends over there agreed to help him for this case. He planned to stay there for just a week or two. But had to stay there for years because the people and the devotees were angry on him.

He said that he was missing a lot of people that he couldn’t meet them for a long period. And otherwise, he doesn’t regret what he said about his investigation. He also feels that he has full rights to express his views. So he said that he was not willing to submit his apologies to anyone as what he did was his rights.

Now the statue of Jesus in Mumbai is not dripping water. It may be that someone might have sorted out the problems in the toilets.