It has been 14 years since her last major apparition in Ireland but the Virgin Mary is back and this time in the lowly form of a tree stump in Limerick.

To the dismay of local Catholic church leaders, the freshly severed stump, with its supposed image of Our Lady, is rapidly becoming the focus of pilgrims. The last time that Ireland experienced anything similar was during its last recession in 1985, when a “moving” statue drew tens of thousands to Ballinspittle, Co Cork.

This time almost 2,000 people have signed a petition to prevent the stump’s removal and hundreds of worshippers have been gathering to recite decades of the rosary and light candles.

Labourers at the Holy Mary Parish Church in Rathkeale, Co Limerick, made the discovery of the supposed image.

“One of the lads said, ‘Look, our Blessed Lady in the tree’,” said Noel White, the chairman of the graveyard committee. “One of the other lads looked over and actually knelt down and blessed himself, he got such a shock. It was the perfect shape of the figure of Our Lady holding the baby.”

Anthony Reddin was clearing trees when he spotted what his saw had produced from a willow. “There were only two limbs and it’s just the way the grain of the two limbs came out,” he said.

“You can depict what you want out of it. It was another man who noticed it and just said it was the image of Holy Mary. I see it as the grain of a tree.”

His scepticism did not put off the faithful, many of whom began arriving as soon as word of the new image spread.

Father Willie Russell, the parish priest, said: “There’s nothing there, it’s just a tree. You can’t worship a tree. A tree is a tree. A person with imagination is a person with imagination.”

He said that there was no harm in people praying at the stump but added: “I don’t believe in idolatry, that would be the danger.”

The lack of enthusiasm from the priest, though, is matched by the determination of locals to turn the stump into a permanent shrine.

“We have almost 2,000 signatures on a petition already and we are going to continue getting more,” said Seamus Hogan, a shopkeeper. “People have been coming from Clare and Kerry to see this tree, which we believe shows a clear outline of Our Lady.” Father Paul Finnerty, the spokesman for the Limerick Diocese, said: “The Church’s response to phenomena of this type is one of great scepticism. While we do not wish in any way to detract from devotion to Our Lady, we would also wish to avoid anything which might lead to superstition.”

John Griffin, a councillor, said that while he had no problem with people coming together to pray, it was only a tree stump.

“I respect everybody’s belief, but when I heard about this and had a look, what I saw were the remains of a felled tree,” he said.

“I see a shape, the shape of a felled tree. It is in the shape of a cloaked lady or cloaked person but that’s because of the way it was cut. I’m not attributing anything supernatural.”

It seems unlikely, however, that the tree surgeons will be allowed to finish what they began.

“If it is left there I would imagine we would have to get expert advice on how to preserve it,” Mr White said. “People are taking bits off the tree or stroking the tree and taking the skin off. If they keep doing that there’ll be nothing there soon.”