MALDEN, Mass. -- Every Monday, Rossana D'Agostino does the same thing to prep for Malden High School's Thursday lunch: She goes into the freezer, slices open the plastic casings and thaws the turkeys. But this Monday was different.

When D'Agostino sliced open the plastic, she saw an image of the Virgin Mary on the Thursday lunch special, making it a "holy turkey," she said.

"I have ten months of the school year, and I’ve never seen a turkey like that," she said.

Once a few kitchen helpers took a look and affirmed that the image was indeed the Virgin Mary, they declared that they would not cook the frozen bird.

"Nobody will cook it," Cathy Strum, the food services secretary said. "The cook was very nervous about cooking it, and the slicer said, ‘I’m not slicing it either.’”

With one more full day left of school and no turkey on the menu, D’Agostino’s "holy turkey" will go back into the freezer until September, Strum said.

Food Services Director Cheryl Maguire said even she thought the image on the turkey resembled the Virgin Mary.

The cooks, several of whom are Italian Catholic, view the image as a good omen, she said.

"It looks better in person than it does in the picture," Maguire said. "Maybe it’s a blessing of things to come. I don’t know. Maybe the economy will get better."

Although Food Services has yet to show the turkey to the nearly 1,600 Malden High School students, pictures of it will hang at the cafeteria registers Thursday for the last lunch period of the school year.

"We’ll do it tomorrow just for the fun of it to see how many kids think the same way we do," Maguire said.