Thousands of the faithful say this bedridden teenager has the power to heal the sick and inspire the hopeless.

For 11 years, Audrey has been trapped in a coma—like state. But the story of her supposed powers has drawn throngs from around the world.

The oil seems to come when the people come. It seems to be for you.

Her modest home has become a Mecca, where mysterious things are said to happen; statues move, pictures bleed, and icons weep oil.

But as the legacy of Audrey has grown, so has the controversy. Is this 14 year old child a miracle worker, a messenger of God? Or is this all a cruel hoax, exploiting a sick and innocent girl?

Audrey Santo was just a baby when the saga began.

She was perfect; extremely bright, extremely verbal.

The outgoing 3 year old child seemed especially different the day her young life would change forever. Her sister Gigi remembers that summer morning, August 9th, 1987.

The day of the accident, she was really, really quiet. Unusual and unlike herself.

Audrey had been playing outside with a toy when her mother realized that all her children were with her except one.

She looked around and said my kids are here, where's my baby? They all kind of rushed to a side door, and 36 feet beyond that, Audrey was floating face down in the pool.

Audrey's brother, jumped in the pool from the deck. He just dove right on into the pool.

It is estimated she had been in the pool about three or four minutes.

Audrey went into cardiac arrest.

She was pretty much in critical condition. But, she was alive, just the fact that there was life was unbelievable.

They were telling the family, she wasn't going to make it. If she made it, maybe she would live two years and she would be a vegetable.It was just probably the most hopeless place her mother had ever been in.

But the nightmare was just beginning. Audrey's father, Steve, couldn't cope with the trauma and walked out on the family.

At the hospital, Audrey was clinging to life. Her family believed she had emerged from her coma. But doctors insisted the prognosis was grim. They suggested that Linda put the child in an institution to live out what little time she had left.

Linda Santo said "Well, they came in and asked me where I was going to place her, just like that. I said, I'm going to place her in my arms. They said," "You can't take her home." "I said, Why not? We're going home"

Linda sold her house and moved into a smaller split-level, where she turned a bedroom into an intensive care unit, collecting an impressive array of sophisticated medical equipment to keep her daughter alive.

Some people thought Linda Santo was crazy, in the beginning, which really upsets her because she is a mother. She considers it her duty and right to take care of her children the way she see fit.

Linda prayed all the time. She prayed whether she was suctioning Audrey, helping one of the other kids with the paper or if she had a nature call. She was constantly praying.

Linda's faith had sustained her for three decades. Now it convinced her to take a daring next step. She would make a pilgrimage with her invalid child to Medjugorje, a remote site in the former Yugoslavia where miracles are said to take place. Father Charles McCarthy, a local priest, had become a close family friend.

Linda Santo expected a miracle. I brought her sandals. And I thought she would be wearing them on the way home.

Audrey did not walk in Medjugorje. In fact, she stopped breathing and had to be flown home on an emergency medical plane. Linda's mother mortgaged her house to pay the $25,000 bill. For Linda, the disappointing trip back to Massachusetts meant a return to the nonstop days and nights of caring for Audrey. Years went by without even a phone call from Linda's husband, Steve. Meanwhile, fate was about to deliver one more blow to the Santo home. Linda was diagnosed with breast cancer. As always, she put her daughter first, choosing to cut short her chemotherapy treatments to give herself more time and energy to take care of Audrey.

But just as it seemed that God wasn't listening, the Santos believe he sent them a sign. With no warning and no logic, they say oil suddenly coated a religious portrait in their living room.

It was really weeping.There were these tears of oil coming out of her eyes.

Linda called Father McCarthy and the priest, highly skeptical, came to the house.

Father McCarthy witnessed that here was oil dripping out of a Lady of Guadalupe picture. He took it apart, He looked at it. There was no glass on the front. It was just canvas both sides, in and out. And He just, could not see anything that was fraudulent. It was just a picture.

That was 1993. And it was just the beginning. Within months, Linda says, the oil spread uncontrollably. Eventually flowing on dozens of icons all over the house. Many have seen it for themselves. On statues, in chalices, streaking the walls.

Linda Santo experiences fear on actual miracles happening in her home. She says, "You know that if it's truly from God, if it's truly mystical, there's a world of responsibility that goes with that. Then it became like a secret." They don't want anybody to see this until they can work it through and know what's going on and there is the possiblility that it will all stop happeneing.

For six years, prayers had been said for Audrey. Now a pilgrimage to her bedside is about to begin.

For five years, the oil has been flowing at the Santo home. And it isn’t just a few drops. It's all over the chapel and Audrey's room. So much that the Santos attach cups to collect it.

Many are desperate. Children with diseases or conditions that have so far resisted cure.

Linda Santos welcomes all seeking a cure or miracle, as she believes Audrey would if she could speak.

Linda has become used to opening her home to strangers. Her garage is now the chapel where the pilgrims gather to hear Audrey's story from a group of devotees who have volunteered to spread the word.

A volunteer at the Santos home stated, "I want you to know that Audrey knows that you’re here, that she’s well aware of the people when they come in her room."

The volunteers and the family believe Audrey knows about her visitors despite her coma—like condition because they tell her the names of the pilgrims and they read her the hundreds of desperate letters that pour in.

Audrey's heart is failing her.

Joey Parilisi's legs were seriously injured in a motorcycle accident(paralized). But on the day his mother visited Audrey, they say he walked without his crutches and is still on his feet.

There may be a medical explanation. Joey’s doctor told us that he actually had a 75 percent chance of walking again. But that hasn’t kept the story from spreading or the gravely ill from seeking their own miracle. This woman, who has cancer, was granted a rare private audience with Audrey. No one seems to leave here with an immediate cure, but everyone is given a precious packet of the oil, carefully collected on cotton balls.

For those who can’t make the trip, volunteers working out of a basement office in the house gladly send it through the mail. The oil is free, but you can buy a video about Audrey. What is it about this child? Is the oil some kind of sign from God?

Her eyes are open. She looks at you. She is not considered to be in a coma or brain dead because she responds.

Still, she is totally helpless and requires meticulous care. Three shifts of nurses, plus machines to keep her alive, all largely paid for by the state. She is constantly turned and even receives daily physical therapy in what the family calls the ballroom. Incredibly, she has never had a bedsore.

She’s held, she’s touched. There’s always someone with her.

In spite of this care, Audrey has developed mysterious symptoms, which some believe explain her purpose. Like the time Audrey broke out in an unusual rash.

It was blood red. It was, like, third degree burns. We didn’t know what to do with it.

A biopsy revealed that the rash was the kind a patient on chemotherapy might get.

She’s never had chemotherapy and she doesn’t have cancer or anything like that. The rash eventually disapeared.

Audrey’s dermatologist stated, that a rash like that could affect a brain—damaged patient. But Linda has a different explanation. She said that almost simultaneously they received curious calls from cancer patients for whom Audrey had prayed, saying their cancer had gone away.

The Santos believe Audrey is what some Christians call a victim soul—someone who willingly takes on the suffering of others.

In 1996, Father George Joyce, while conducting Mass at the house, witnessed yet another incredible event—the wafer or host, which is used during communion, suddenly it is claimed, developed blood stains. Ultimately, four so—called “bleeding hosts” would appear at the Santo home and that would add to the lore that has attracted priests from around the world to Audrey’s bedside. They believe the wafers contain the actual blood of Christ and put them on display carrying them through the kitchen to worshipers in the back yard. Each August 9th, the Santos organize a Mass, marking Audrey’s near drowning—the darkest day of their lives. This year, demand grew so huge they had to use a nearby football stadium. The Mass is a rare outing for Audrey herself, so frail that she must be transported by ambulance and protected in a portable room specially built for this event. Audrey’s following has caught the watchful eye of the Church. Last year, the bishop of Worschester formed a commission to determine whether all of this is a message from Heaven or nothing more than a hoax.

Father McCarhty stated, "What we can immediately see in front of us is we can see a mother, loving unbegrudgingly, without cease, her child in a situation that is almost impossible to love." "This is a very, very serious form of love Linda is executing here. If the statues are of God, then, in my judgment, they are pointing to Linda and what she has done over all these years in terms of just goodness and love that she has given to that child who, in the eyes of the world, is really junk, should have been gone a long time ago, and yet the person gives up their whole life for her. That’s love."

It could be months, maybe even years, before the Catholic Diocese of Worcester completes its investigation into what’s going on the Santo’s home. But don’t expect any definitive resolution to the mystery.

Right now, the Church is mainly interested in finding out whether this is a hoax. And if it turns out to be, the Church will then issue a warning to the faithful.

Audrey's dad, Steve Santo, has returned and resumed his role as father and husband in the Santo family.

Pilgrimages can be arranged and information can be obtained from: The Apostolate of the Silent Soul, PO Box 1274, Ruthland, MA 01543