Do you see it? Man claims face of Jesus can be seen in wooden shelf

It wasn't until Mick Scanlan turned his wooden shelf upside down that he saw an apparition that had eluded him for the 10 years that he'd previously owned it:the face of Jesus in the wood grain.

"This was from Ontario. We had it on our wall for about ten years.I just happened to one day turn to turn it over to put a plant on top of it and this is what I saw," he said.

"There's an eye, there's a nose, there's a full mouth, there's long hair and there's hands praying hands of Jesus."

'You can't not see it'

He said he's not the only one who has seen the face.

"Most of thepeoplewho look at it see it immediately," he said. "Once you've seen it, you can't not see it."

Scanlanestimates about 1,500 people have seen the face in the shelf in thethree years since he discovered it.

"I think it's justunbelievablethat it's there, that it's natural. It's a knot in the wood but you can see if there's any doubt at all, there's [the] prayinghandunderneath it. So that's what I feel. I feel that it's authentic."

WhileScanlansaid he's Catholic, he adds he's not religious.

"I've asked lots of people who are non-religious and lots have seen the same thing."

When asked if anyone has offered to buy it,Scanlansaid no.

"They see it and there's a few people taking pictures of it. They're mostly flabbergasted."

Not endorsed by diocese

Gerald Gabriel of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlottetown wouldn't offer an opinion on the claim that the face of Jesus was in the shelf.

"It's not so much what I think," he said. "It's what the church thinks and what the church teaches, and the church does not make pronouncements on the validity of these visual effects."

Gabriel pointed outno one really knows what the face of Christ looked like.

"We have artistic depictions and when people look at these natural, visual images, they are free to see what they want to see but the church does not make pronouncements about their authentic merit."

• MORE P.E.I. NEWS | From NASA engineer to nun: Libby Osgood's journey
• MORE P.E.I. NEWS | 'Where the water meets the rails': Brewery planned for downtown Summerside