If the Virgin Mary grilled cheese sandwich wasn't to your taste, how about the Virgin Mary discovered in chocolate drippings? Cruz Jacinto discovered the Holy Mother in drippings she was cleaning from a vat of chocolate in the kitchens of chocolatier to the stars, Martucci Angiano.

I can sort of see the shape of a cowled figure, I suppose, but that's about it.

"When I come in, the first thing I do is look at the clock, but this time I didn't look at the clock. My eyes went directly to the chocolate," Jacinto said. "I thought, 'Am I the only one who can see this? I picked it up and I felt emotion just come over me.

"For me, it was a sign."

For me? Not so much.

"drippings"??
GROSS
yikes
I don

That's not the Virgin Mary that's...

the Malteaser Falcon!!!

Jacinto had better watch out, the 'Fat Man' and Joel Cairo will be paying him a visit any day now!

I came to make the comment that as soon as I saw the photo, I saw the Maltese Falcon as well- not some chocolate virgin Mary statuette. Alex, if you can get a good photo of the Falcon in that position, you ought to post that next to the chocolate photo...

Well, now this one makes sense, finally. It is well known amongst biblical scholars that Mother Mary was indeed a chocoholic, having been exposed to the stuff as a gift of the Magus Hershus Al-Barrus. It is also believed that she passed this confection affection to Her Son, who is purported to have consumed vast quantities of chocolate at the Last Supper, hence the looks of deep consternation on the faces of the disciples as portrayed in Da Vinci's painting, for it was well known that Christ enjoyed a nice late-night choco-fart exchange with Mary Magdilan, and they were afraid that He might stay up too late and miss his trial and execution. Christ is said to have bristled at his compatriots' lack of choco-love, hence his great cry of anguish: "Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they chew". That's what I heard anyway. sorta

Falcon, that's immediately what I thought too....

Yup, obviously this is a divine sign from Bogey himself. Is that whistling I hear?

MY VOTE IS A FALCON..

How d'ya think the Fat Man got fat? The original Maltese Falcon was solid chocolate.

Hmm
I was thinking owl
but I'll go with Falcon

All hail the Holy falcon!

I am too confused now, okay? Some one should explain what is a chocolate virgin any ways, okay, for I, Raoul, Man of A Thousand Positions know many things but this chocolate virgin thing is not of my understanding, so help out poor Raoul on this, okay? It IS Friday night here, so I would like to know quickly, okay? Many chocolate deflowerings might happen by Saturday if you hurry. Thanks to you very the much, okay? Hah ha ha... Rrrraoul

So, if you have the Virgin Mary in chocolate... do you bite the head off first?

... yeah, I see the Maltese Falcon too.

This is one of the most absurd things ever!

Most of these people are just trying to con believers--and a true believer shouldn't need their faith confirmed by pattern recognition in chocolate or or any other medium.

Someone should go Abraham on them and smash the idols (or, in this case) eat them.

There's even a song about this stuff, called "Plastic Jesus" or something and one of the lines is: "Doin' ninety I'm not wary, cuz I got my Virgin Mary gaurenteen' I won't go to Hell."

What does it say about people's religious beliefs when the apparitions of God, Mary, Jesus, Mohammed, etc. that they see are always in pan drippings, stains on the floor, rust spots, and other things most people would try to scrub off?

I'm not sure if that makes them more or less spiritual than most people, but it's certainly strange.

It's a sign, all right. A sign that lots of credulous people don't understand either statistics or their own minds.

Did anyone else see Penn and Teller's Bullshit with the devout woman worshipping a pattern of knotholes and sworls in her bathroom door?

(Funny, my password to post this one is 'church' -- Screenshot available)

She is ... Our Lady of the Holy Cocoa!

I never ate a virgin. Damn! Always late!

Should I chase the Maltese Falcon, instead?

XOXOXOXOXO

The Legend

"For me, it was a sign."

Yeah, for me too--a sign of the human need to believe in nonsense.

Actually, I thought of an owl the first time I saw this, too. Maltese Falcon is good as well, though.

Hey, what's that line from The Maltese Falcon? "The stuff that dreams are made of." Maybe this chocolate company should adopt that as their slogan.

The Virgin Mary in chocolate? Please ... today I found the Grateful Dead dancing bear made of fried fish batter at Captain D's. I've posted photos at http://www.bitegeist.com/belly

You'd better watch out, deb. Before you know it, half a million Deadheads will be camping on your lawn, waiting for the second coming of Jerry.

Thank goodness the Church has a lengthy and stringent process for verifying miracles- and thank goodness most of this nonsense doesn't even get to stage 1.

Hilarious. First thing I thought when I saw it was the Maltese Falcon too. Rushed (two days late) to the comments to note this, but I see numerous others already saw the similarity.

But it really is uncanny. Here's a photo of the prop for comparison.

Ridiculous.

Mmmmm....that's my kind of holy mary.

I see an owl.

It looks like a parakeet to me.