Secrets — Our Lady of Soufanieh

On 7 September 1984, the Nativity of Mary in the Eastern calendar then kept at Soufanieh, the Virgin spoke a short public sentence and, with it, a secret. Myrna has said she is not to open the secret before her death. The only words of that confidence which the Soufanieh record prints are the seal itself.

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The Virgin is reported to have confided one secret to Myrna Nazzour at Soufanieh, not to be revealed until Myrna’s death. The content has never been published. This page records only the seal she has said she may repeat, and it does not invent the rest. Private revelation does not belong to the deposit of faith. The Holy See has not declared the Soufanieh events supernatural.

What the Church has and has not said

Soufanieh is a house in Damascus, not a shrine with a decree of supernatural character. In 1987 Father Naoum Attallah, superior of the Lazarists in Damascus, granted a nihil obstat for publication of the messages given from 1982 through 1987. The note, prepared by Father Joseph Malouli, states that the last word belongs to the Holy Church. A nihil obstat permits a text to be printed. It does not judge that heaven has spoken.

The Holy See has issued no judgment on Soufanieh. The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch received Nicolas and Myrna Nazzour on 30 December 1983, issued a statement about the phenomenon, and for a time held the icon at the church of the Holy Cross. Catholic and Orthodox clergy have prayed in the house for decades. None of that is a completed discernment.

Timeline of the secret

1982-12-18 First spoken message of the Virgin. No secret is mentioned. The public call — remember God, love, a shrine, announce Emmanuel — is given in full.
1984-09-07 During an ecstasy the Virgin gives the public sentence “Live your life, but do not let your life prevent you from continuing to pray,” and confides a secret whose only repeatable words are “This is between you and me until your death.”
1987 Nihil obstat for the messages of 1982–1987. The secret is not among the texts cleared for publication, because it was never written down for anyone else.
1990-11-26 Mary says the visions will cease until Easter is unified. The secret is not opened, and it is not identified with that public condition.

What is known

The keepers of the Soufanieh messages state that the Virgin confided a secret to Myrna which she is not to reveal until her death. They also state that Myrna remembers, of that confidence, only the sentence that binds her. One other ecstasy message is missing for a different reason: a Muslim woman’s prayer shook Myrna so deeply that she could not recall what had been said. That lost message is not the secret. It was forgotten, not sealed.

Nothing in the published corpus describes the secret’s subject — not chastisement, not a date, not a person, not a nation. To supply a content would be to write fiction and call it heaven.

1. The secret kept until death

Not revealed

Disclosure: Not been made public. Myrna Nazzour is reported to be under obedience not to speak it before her death. The Soufanieh association prints only the seal.

A single secret, given by the Virgin on 7 September 1984, whose substance remains with Myrna. The public sentence of that night is separate and is printed among the messages. The secret itself is not.

The only words Myrna has said she may repeat

This is between you and me until your death.

These nine words are the frame, not the contents. They are included so the existence of the secret is not rumor, and so that no one mistakes silence for a text SanctumNomen is withholding. There is no further official wording.

How to read the silence

At Fátima the secret was written, kept, and in time published by the Church. At Soufanieh the secret was never handed to a bishop to unseal. The public messages already say what Soufanieh asks of the Church: unity, love, faith, and one feast of Easter. The secret does not add a second gospel beside that call, because it has not been given to the Church at all.

What remains closed

Until Myrna speaks, or until she dies without speaking, the secret stays closed. Oil, stigmata, and the published messages can be examined. This cannot. Speculation about wars, popes, or hidden dates is not Soufanieh. It is impatience with an obedience the visionary says she was given.

Sources and further reading

Our Lady of Soufanieh — Messages (English) — States the existence of the secret and prints the seal of 7 September 1984.
Our Lady of Soufanieh — Nihil obstat — Publication permission for the early messages; the last word belongs to the Church.
Our Lady of Soufanieh — YouTube channel (SOUFANIEHVIDEOS) — Documentary record of the house, the anniversaries, and the stigmata. Not a text of the secret.

Private revelation is not required belief. Approval means the faithful may believe with prudence.

Ask the Friar!