The most incredible of Sai Baba’s supernatural materializations was of a crucifix he materialized on Mahashivaratri day February, 1973 for his dear devotee Dr. John S. Hislop. This is Dr. Hislop’s account as excerpted from his book, My Baba and I:

…The cars halted at the side of the road, and we started to climb down the bank to the sandy river bottom. I was beside Baba. As we passed a bush, Swami broke off two twigs, placed them together and asked me, "What is this, Hislop?"

"Well, Swami, it is a cross," I answered. Baba then closed his fingers over the twigs and directed three somewhat slow breaths into his fist, between thumb and forefinger. Then, he opened his hand to reveal a Christ figure crucified on a cross, and he gave it to me.

He said, "This shows Christ as he really was at the time he left his body, not as artists have imagined him or as historians have told about him. His stomach is pulled in and his ribs are all showing. He had had no food for eight days.”

I looked at the crucifix, but found no words. Then Baba commented, “The cross is wood from the actual cross on which Christ was crucified. To find some of the wood after two thousand years took a little time! The image is of Christ after he died. It is a dead face.”

I noticed something odd and asked, "Swami, what is that hole at the top of the cross?" Baba replied that the cross was originally hung from a standard. … The cross is so small that the details on the figure of Christ escape the eye. A friend, Walter Wolfe, came down to our home and took some color photographs of the crucifix. The overall length of the Christ figure is only one inch, and Walter was to make some enlargements to bring out the details…

A few weeks later, Walter and his wife returned with color enlargements of the cross… The details revealed by the photographic enlargements were so extraordinary that all persons present were concentrating on this amazing vision of Christ… On this afternoon, the sky along the Mexican coast was clear and peaceful. But suddenly, without any warning, there was a loud crash of thunder and as our eyes turned to the windows, lightening flashed from a dark cloud where a moment before there had been only clear sky. A violent wind crashed through the house, causing windows and doors to open and shut with such a force that glass was in danger of shattering. The curtains were flying in all directions. We were much startled by this turn of events, but my wife at once, said, “It’s 5 p.m., the same time Christ died on the cross, and what is now happening is described in the Bible.” She later brought a Bible and we looked until we found the pertinent paragraph, which said that at the moment Christ gave up His life, a violent storm arose with lightning and thunder, and winds rent the curtains of the temple… We and our friends concluded that the recapitulation of an event which had taken place some 2,000 years ago upon the crucifixion of Christ, implied a great power connected in some way with that small cross and Christ figure materialized by Baba…

It might be thought that the story of the cross was now complete, but there is still a sequel. In 1975, I made an unannounced trip to India to consult with Baba about arrangements for a visit to America that we hoped he would undertake. Swami had not been informed of my visit and was away on tour when I arrived. On that day he was having lunch with a few senior devotees and he said, “Hislop arrived in Bangalore just now and is waiting.”

One of the men at the table (who later told me of the scene) remarked, “You made a crucifix for him.”

Baba replied, “Yes, I made it for him. And when I went to look for the wood, every particle of the cross had disintegrated and had returned to the elements. I reached out to the elements and reconstituted sufficient material for a small cross. Very seldom does Swami interfere with Nature, but occasionally, for a devotee, it will be done.”