Written by Fr. Andrew Notere

We were visited in October 2002 by two men gifted with discernment. They stayed at our Retreat Centre for three days, but before they left they gave us an urgent message. They told us that it was imperative that we replace the crucifix hanging over the altar with another. They were quite forceful about this. So much so that it was embarassing to the priest. I really felt that I was being put on the spot and was being asked to commit to spending a lot of money on a new crucifix which would be hard to justify to the money strapped parish administration. Admittedly, I didn't like the crucifix in question. There was something peculiar and dark in the way in which it was carved. And we had received quite a few negative comments about it from pilgrims to the shrine. But was it really that much of a problem?...

Four days later, on a Sunday, we were visited by a middle aged man in company with his family. They had never been to the church before. I asked him what is his work in life (a question I seldom ask pilgrims coming to the Shrine). He told he he was a wood carver, and that he has a crucifix that's looking for a home... He had come to give us his crucifix.

I was quite taken aback by this and told him what we had been told by the two visitors just four days earlier. He invited me to come to his home the next night to see the carving. I was worried that the crucifix would have been so poorly carved, or portray Our Lord in such a way that would be inappropriate for a shrine like us. l was already preparing to tell him we would not be able to accept it after all.

What I saw was a magnificient carving, just short of life size. The hands, the feet, the ribs and especially the expression on the face of Christ. The nobility and compassion! Truly it was the most impressive crucifix I had ever seen. But it would be too big for the church...certainly too big to hang over the altar.

The carver told me he began to carve it some ten years earlier when he lived in Queensland. He had a dream one night that he was making crosses for the Roman Government at the time of Jesus. The one on which the redemption of the world was wrought was made by him, and all he could do was to think of how much money he would get from the authorities in Jerusalem. He knew it was only a dream, yet it seemed so very real to him. What really convinced him that it was not just a crazy dream was that his young daughter came into her father's bedroom the next morning, and told him about her dream that night. It was the same dream. Father and daughter had had the same dream the same night.

So the following Saturday we raised the new crucifix into place over the chancel arch. It was perfect...big, and slightly 'in your face.' But perfect.

So the old crucifix was taken down, and put into storage. It was placed in the church shed until it could be determined what to do with it. A week later, the shed burned down in a freak fire, the old redgum crucifix being reduced to ashes. I was blamed for this, and all the enemies of the Shrine now had a cause and an opportunity to inflict real damage on the work and reputation of the Shrine. It would be some time before the whole thing settled down, and things once again moved forward.

A photograph was taken the first day the new crucifix was raised in place. Above the crucifix in the photograph, there is an unusual light in the ceiling. But the light is inexplicable...it appears someone has just opened a door a little way, or that light is coming from underneath a doorway (the doorway to Heaven?). What is clear is that light is seen on the ceiling at night in a place where there are no electrical lights.

Another photo taken [See here] in the church several years earlier shows Our Lady seated 'kitty cornered' in the pew. Why is she seated that way? Was it because she couldn't bear to look at her Son in the presentation of the old redgum crucifix which was then hanging above the altar? In fact she appears to be looking toward a smaller wall crucifix close to the lectern. We feel blessed by this powerful sign of our redemption...the Yankalilla crucifix, and the two men gifted with discernment.

Shrine of Our Lady of Yankalilla [Facebook].