A Christ figure appears in 1946


The village and the event

Kristineberg 1946 was a small but lively mining village in the north of Sweden. The village was a new settlement built after successful mineral prospecting some years earlier by a mine company. Kristineberg had small shops, a police and fire department and of course the mine company’s office. It also had a church from the start via The Salvation Army. The church played an important role for the village as a meeting place and a spiritual oasis in the new settlement. The inhabitants consisted of all kinds; mostly quite young but also some older people, both rich and poor, but mostly workers, some religious but mostly non-religious folk with just a tradition of following Christian holidays.

It was some months after the Second World War on an early morning in the end of November 1946. Mr. Albert Jönsson was starting his work 107 meters down the mine. A colleage had the night before blasted dynamite to prepare for Albert so he could collect new stone pieces for metal extracting. When Albert came down to his working area he became speechless by what he saw. In front of him in the light from his headlamp on the stone wall, a two meter high shiny Christ like formation appeared. The formation had been revealed after the dynamite blast which had released stone layers from the wall.

Spreading the news
Albert spread the news to his workmates. They came quickly to see the figure. After that the news was spread up to the villagers. The villagers were allowed to visit the mine even though they had to climb a 13 meter long ladder to the mine shaft were the formation could be seen. The local newspapers were alerted and after that it was out in the whole country. Even further afield, the event became known to the international press. Even Life (Magazine) in the USA had reported about the Kristineberg event.

The right to sell the photo (that you can see in this Blog) was given from the mine company to a former employee that had become disabled working in the mine because of polio. That person was working in a news-stand after his disease and sold the picture from there. Thousands of post cards and photos were sold. Many photos were hung up in homes throughout Sweden. There were also orders of photos from the USA that were shipped over to Swedish American persons who had heard about Kristineberg and the event.

It was just over some weeks that the public could visit the mine and be guided to the Christ formation. Gradually the figure was darkened by reaction with the air and dust. Also the mine room was filled up with stone materials that were released as a part of the working process. The formation is still there but the condition of it is unknown.

The short and hasty event had a great impact on both Christ believers as non-believers. Albert, who was the first to discover the formation became a personal believer in Christ as the way to God.

Gradually over the years the memory of the Kristineberg event faded away – but never completely.