MEXICO CITY – A small hamburger restaurant in central Mexico has become a shrine of pilgrimage for dozens of people who say they see the reflection of Jesus’ face in the establishment’s glass, the press said on Thursday.

Last Saturday a married couple at the restaurant, located in Muñoz de Domingo Arenas, a town with some 4,000 inhabitants, apparently discovered the apparition, which locals say “is a miracle.”

According to the burger joint’s owner, Maria Eva Lozada, the image can only be seen at night because it is produced by the reflection cast by a lamp of a post and the shadow of a tree, said the daily Reforma, which published a photo of the place with the image and the pilgrims in front of it.

“I was even going to sell the place, but not now. I’m staying here with Jesus – that’s why I took down the for-sale signs. I wouldn’t sell it for anything,” Lozada told Reforma.

Every night since the image was discovered, dozens of people from neighboring towns have come to see the image and take photos and videos.

Meanwhile, hamburgers and hot-dog sales have boomed thanks to the faithful flocking in.

The spokesman of the Catholic diocese of Tlaxcala, Cristobal Gaspariano, urged the faithful not to fall into fanaticism, since the image “still lacks credibility.”

He said that when a case like this turns up the Congregation of the Faith is the body charged with investigating it to determine whether the apparitions are authentic or simply chance occurrences.

Despite being a lay nation, Mexico is one of the bastions of the Catholic Church in Latin America together with Brazil and the pilgrimages of millions of people each year to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the country’s patron saint, are famous. EFE