Family and friends of the Missouri man who was imprisoned in Syria after he said he crossed into the country on a “pilgrimage” to Damascus hailed his unexpected recovery as a “Christmas miracle” on Thursday after about seven months with no contact.

“We’re very blessed that he is safe, that he is good, that he is protected,” Pixie Rogers said of her brother, Travis Timmerman. “And I saw on the news that he got fed.”

Timmerman, 29, who is from Urbana, Missouri, a small community north of…