A Marian statue in Italy that allegedly shed tears of blood has been declared a fraud by the Vatican after a probe.
The bizarre bogus claim has caused controversy after duped pilgrims flocked to try and witness the so-called miracle. Owner Gisella Cardia claimed the Madonna effigy has been bleeding from the eyes since 2016. She also said it gave her private revelations and she fed pilgrims to the site seemingly magically endless gnocchi and rabbit.
Her boasts began after she bought the carving in Medjugorje and brought it to her home-town Trevignano Romano, just north of Rome. As the claims gained widespread notoriety and national fame, a makeshift shrine was set up around the statue in a field.
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Dubbed the famed Madonna di Trevignano, a swath of devotees would visit on the third day of every month to pray the rosary, venerate the statue, make confessions, and hear the latest of Cardia’s revelations.
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But last year, suspicious locals called in a private investigator, who met with the Italian military police, and according to reports he presented evidence suggesting that the liquid on the statue was pig’s blood.
Now Catholic church chiefs have ruled that the supernatural phenomenon was false, having it rubber-stamped by the Vatican.
Their Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued its first decree according to a new set of norms for vetting alleged Marian apparitions and spiritual phenomena.
It backed up a preliminary report from an investigation by the Diocese of Civita Castellana that found nothing supernatural about the statue.
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
It stated: “It is clear that it is not supernatural.
“May the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus, Mother of the Church and our Mother, restore peace and serenity in view of the spiritual good of the faithful of the parish of Trevignano Romano and of the people of God who are throughout the Diocese of Civita Castellana.”
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