Man Recounts Miraculous Encounter at Church of the Holy Sepulchre, ‘I Believe It Was an Angel’

"In that moment of my life, I was very distant with God," he told Crosswalk Headlines. "I was just thinking about parties and women and all this kind of stuff -- that is not the way that God wants us to live."

Quintero frequently visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the site believed to be where Jesus was crucified and buried. There, Quintero often prayed to God.

"I liked to go to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, just to ask Him, 'Who are You? What do You want from me?'… It's a very special moment when you are in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre."

On one of his final days in Israel, Quintero walked to the church following his shift and sat quietly in the back for three to four hours, watching tourists as they came and went.

"And by the middle of my stay in the church, I saw this man entering the main door of the church, and he was wearing a white tunic -- long white hair, long white beard. He was barefoot, and he was using a stick, a wooden stick. ...I had gone a lot of times to the church. And I saw this man [only] once." 

The two didn't speak at first. After the church closed, though, Quintero encountered the man as he sat on the steps. The man approached Quintero.

"He asked me in Spanish, like in a very fluent Spanish, a very native Spanish, 'Why are you so distant with God?' -- that's the first thing he said to me."

Quintero recalls feeling shocked, not knowing how the man knew personal details about his life -- much less his language.

As they engaged in conversation, Quintero acknowledged that he had been distant from God. Soon, the man asked the medical student a second question: "Why did you come to Israel?" Quintero responded that he felt that God had led him to Israel.

Before their conversation ended, the man told Quintero with conviction, "You have a mission in Israel, and you must come again." 

The man then said something even more surprising.

"He told me that he knew the priest and the church where I live. I live in a small town here in Guadalajara," Quintero said. 

They chatted for another 15-20 minutes before the man ended the conversation with a farewell, "Pleased to meet you. Bye bye."

Although the man was barefooted, he wasn't homeless, Quintero said.

"He was very, very clean. He was very neat."

"I made him the promise that I will get in a very close relationship with God. But it wasn't easy," Quintero said. 

The encounter was life-changing for Quintero, who has since completed his medical degree. He has plans to return to Israel this year. 

"He should not have known" such details about Rogelio's life, he said.

"This is a very personal thing," he said.

Quintero spoke to a pastor about the encounter. 

"He told me -- 'Either he was an angel or a person who God sent to you.'"

"I believe it was an angel," Quintero said. 

God sent the mysterious man "to change my life," Quintero said. He considers the encounter a miracle. 

"What happened to me was a moment that God said, 'I'm real. Follow me. This is the right way.'"

Photo Credit: ©Wikimedia Commons/Gerd Eichmann

Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel. 

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