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Angel of the Vatican
by OLINKA KOSTER
Last updated at 18:03 30 March 2007
When retired policeman Andy
Key went on a trip to Rome, he was struck by the beauty of sunlight streaming
through a window in the Vatican.
As the Pope made an address
nearby, he decided to capture the stunning image on his camera.
But it was only when Mr Key,
48, and his wife Susan, 44, returned home and and downloaded their photographs
that they noticed a strange apparition in the picture.
An apparition?
Andy Key's image of a 'guardian angel' above the heads of other visitors to St
Peter's Basilica
They were amazed to see what
looked like the image of a guardian angel above the heads of other visitors to
St Peter's Basilica.
Mr Key, from March,
Cambridgeshire, said: "It looks like an angel hovering on the people's
heads.
"No-one can explain it -
there's nothing on their heads for the light to bounce off."
Mr Key went on the holiday to
mark his retirement from his job as a police constable for Cambridgeshire
Police.
He and his wife, a medical
secretary, were looking around the famous church when they noticed a large
group of people and realised the Pope was making an address nearby.
"I was taking pictures of
all the things around us and saw this huge window with the light streaming
through and thought it looked beautiful," he explained.
"I snapped the picture
and didn't noticed anything until I got home.
"It looks almost like a
hologram. I thought it was really spooky."
Professional photographers
have studied Mr Key's photo and are at a loss to explain what may have caused
the image.
It was only revealed when he
got home, plugged his digital Kodak camera into his computer and downloaded the
images.
Mr Key, who now works as a
student mentor at the Neale-Wade Community College in March, said: "It
wasn't as if we had visited Rome for any particularly religious reason. We were
simply sight-seeing as you do.
"I had not really thought
about angels and stuff before. I don't know if I believe in it all but it does
look like an angel.
"Several people have
looked at it including a professional photographer and they can't work out what
it might be - maybe it is a guardian angel."
It is by no means the first
time holy images have unexpectedly appeared.
Two years ago, church organist
Rita Clayson found a picture of Jesus Christ in an ancient tree in a small
Northamptonshire village.
Twisted ivy roots helped to
form his face on a tree trunk in a small spinney on the edge of Little
Houghton.
Earlier this month, pregnant
Amanda Skelding, 23, from Glasgow, saw what appeared to be a traditional image
of Jesus in the grainy black and white picture she was handed after her
ultraound scan.