A couple was mysteriously burned on the forehead after receiving the mark of the cross on Ash Wednesday.
Sara Heloísa Sousa and her boyfriend Luan Jackson from Brazil shared their stories after the March 5 incident in Carnaúba dos Dantas, which left them both with visible burns where the ashes had been.
Ash Wednesday marks the first day of Lent, where Christians traditionally go to church and receive a cross-shaped mark on their heads using the ashes of burnt palm leaves.
At the evening ceremony in the Parish of São José, however, the annual ritual took a turn when the couple said they overheard several people claiming the mark was starting to burn.
Jackson, who left the ashes on longer than his girlfriend, was left with a large burn and bruise in the middle of his forehead.
Sousa escaped with a much smaller wound, but the shape of a cross was still visible when she spoke about the incident Thursday.
‘The wind blew and it burned a lot, I immediately started to remove it and this little mark was still there. My boyfriend was really burned because he spent more time [with the mark] than me,’ Sousa told G1.
Father Ronney Galvão, who oversaw the Ash Wednesday celebration, said the cause of the burns is still a mystery, adding they don’t yet know how many parishioners were injured by the strange ashes.
Luan Jackson suffered a large burn after received the mark of the cross at the March 5 service in Carnaúba dos Dantas, Brazil
Jackson pointed to where his local priest applied the traditional ashes on the first day of Lent, but the mark began to burn his skin shortly after being placed on his head
The Parish of São José also issued a statement after the burnings, noting that their preparation of the ashes ‘was carried out as usual, absolutely normal, as every year.’
‘We regret what happened and are sympathetic to everyone who had their skin affected,’ church officials added.
Before issuing the public statement, Sousa claimed that the priest administering the ashes tried to laugh off the discomfort people were feeling, saying that the pain was the result of sins leaving the body.
However, Jackson and his girlfriend said many of their fellow churchgoers believed there was more than a higher power at work at this Brazilian parish – and they may be right.
This isn’t the first time church ashes have caused these kinds of burns on foreheads, and Catholic Church officials actually found a scientific reason for the accident.
In 2014, churchgoers in County Cork and Galway, Ireland suffered the same mysterious burns during Ash Wednesday services.
Those individuals also complained of a burning sensation shortly after the mark of the cross was applied by priests.
It turned out that the palm leaves being used were too dry and turned caustic when water was added to the ashes.
Sara Heloísa Sousa said she immediately began wiping away the mark of the cross after experiencing the same burning sensation she overheard other parishioners complaining about
Church officials in Brazil have not released a cause for the mysterious burnings of Jackson and Sousa, but some believed it could have been an allergic or chemical reaction
Turning caustic means that a chemical reaction has made the ashes capable of burning human tissue, usually because the overly dry leaves burned at too high of a temperature.
When something burns, it can leave behind various chemicals. However, if the fire is too hot, the ashes may contain more alkaline compounds – the same chemicals used in making soap but are very harsh on skin.
If there are too many alkaline compounds in the ashes, it can lead to a burn when they make contact with human skin.
Mixing those ashes with water can actually make things much worse. The alkaline-filled ashes turn to lye, a very dangerous chemical that burns the skin.
Ashes are created using the palm leaves from the previous year’s Palm Sunday, which are stored until they are burned on Ash Wednesday
‘It is the first time that something of this kind has occurred here in our city,’ Father Ronney added after the burning incident.
The priest noted that their leaves from Palm Sunday are burned in the bonfires of the June festivals celebrating St. John the Baptist, a common Catholic and Christian tradition in Brazil, Portugal, and Spain.
Those ashes are then collected and stored until the following year’s Ash Wednesday services.
In 2019, another chemical burn accident on Ash Wednesday left 73 students with permanent scars on their heads.
That incident, at St Augustine’s High School in the UK, sparked outrage from parents after local police said they would not investigate the Catholic Church officials involved.
Despite at least two children ending up in hospital, the police have said there was no ‘criminality’ involved in Father Tony Rohan’s 2019 ceremony.
A total of 89 people, including 16 teachers and one school governor, were burned in the religious ceremony which was stopped when pupils complained of ‘tingling,’ prompting parents to consider taking legal action.
