A family in the Philippines has described as a “miracle” the survival of a Bible that remained intact after a house fire destroyed nearly all of their belongings.

Tragedy struck Catholic devotee Ruth Mary Repuyan and her family in November when their home caught fire in Ilocos Sur, Philippines. According to the Viral Press, almost everything inside the house was reduced to black ash and melted debris.

Still, the family returned home to retrieve what was left. As they began rummaging through the destruction to see what could be recovered, Repuyan noticed a thick object that was partly buried under scorched rubble - to their astonishment, it was a Bible.

In images posted online, you can see Repuyan pulling out the family’s green and white Bible with no visible signs of scorching or melting. What’s even more remarkable is that when she and her family found a second book, it was heavily damaged.

"We will celebrate Christmas with nothing left. Everything was burnt, and the only thing we have is the Bible. This is a miracle,” Repuyan said.

The Philippines is home to over 99 million Christians, making it the largest Christian-majority nation in Asia. 

Repuyan’s remarkable story is not the first of its kind. In 2019, a devastating fire destroyed a church in West Virginia. The fire was so hot that the Coal City Fire Department firefighters had to back out at one point, but when they finally went through the charred wreckage, they noticed that at least a dozen Bibles were intact and surrounded by the rubble.

“In your mind, everything should be burned, ashes. Not a single bible was burned, and not a single cross was harmed!!” the department wrote on a Facebook post, CNN reports.