The mystery surrounding a Virgin Mary statue which supposedly 'weeps tears of blood' has finally been solved after almost a decade.
Since 2016, people from across the world have been flocking to the town of Carmiano in Italy to visit the effigy, known as Madonna di Trevignano, which is said to have extraordinary powers.
The owner, Gisella Cardia, alleged that the statue started crying tears of blood nine years ago, as well as giving her prophecies to share with other people.
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On every third day of the month, she would allow believers to visit the Madonna di Trevignano, which was placed in a large blue case on a hill as part of a makeshift shrine.
Cardia bought the statue at a Catholic pilgrimage site in Medjugorje, a town in Bosnia and Herzegovina, before its mystical powers supposedly came to light.
She alleged that the Madonna di Trevignano fed 15 people with never-ending portions of pizza, gnocchi and rabbit, among other bizarre things.
People even believed that Cardia had got a heads up about the Covid-19 pandemic thanks to her special statue - however, the Roman Catholic church insisted it was all a load of rubbish last year.
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Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued its first decree, according to rules for vetting any alleged Marian apparitions (a reported supernatural appearance from the Virgin Mary) and spiritual phenomena.
This referred to a report from a Diocese of Civita Castellana, which hadn’t found anything at all supernatural about the famed statue.
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."
Now, there appears to be scientific evidence to support the fact that the Madonna di Trevignano doesn't leak blood out of her eyes - as it seems they really were just crocodile tears after all.
A DNA test was carried out to track down the source of the alleged bodily fluid after suspicious locals suggested that Cardia could have used pig's blood to fool people.
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Prosecutors ordered the lab tests after residents hired a private investigator in 2022, who later met with the Italian military police, to dig into the woman's claims about the statue.
The results, which were obtained on Thursday (13 February), suggest that the red liquid falling from the Madonna di Trevignano's eyes matched Cardia's genetic profile, local outlet Corriere della Sera reported.
This information is reportedly set to be handed over to prosecutors on 28 February.
However, Cardia's lawyer Solange Marchignoli has insisted that the tests don't disprove the woman's claims about the statue.
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"The DNA stain warrants further investigation," she said. "We are waiting to find out whether it’s a mixed or single profile.
"If the profile is single, it means that it is only Cardia's and she put it there, so in this case we would go to trial. But if, as expected, the profile is mixed, it means that the DNA found on the statue also contains Cardia's DNA, which we expect because she used, kissed it and handled it.
"Who can say? Do you know the Madonna’s DNA? I deduce it is not human but this is our thought: do we delve into faith? I want to exclude that it is not only Gisella's blood.
"I invite everyone to be cautious - because, on the contrary, extremes of a crime would be detected - and I await the official outcome of the expert report, hoping that it will be favourable to our defence."
Cardia has been accused by fraud by several people, according to The Guardian, who gave her donations which they believed were funding a centre for sick children.
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Reports claim that the Madonna di Trevignano owner has fled her home in Trevignano and that no one - including her lawyer - has knowledge of her whereabouts.
Topics: World News, Weird, Conspiracy Theory
Olivia Burke