Weeping statue#Weeping paintings
{{Short description|Purported supernatural phenomenon}}
{{use dmy dates|date=April 2023}}
{{About|Marian iconography|the Doctor Who villains|Weeping Angels}}
{{Roman Catholic Mariology}}
A weeping statue is a statue which has been claimed to have shed tears or to be weeping by supernatural means. Statues weeping tears which appear to be blood, oil, and scented liquids have all been reported. Other claimed phenomena are sometimes associated with weeping statues such as miraculous healing, the formation of figures in the tear lines, and the scent of roses. These events are generally reported by Catholics, and initially attract pilgrims, but are in most cases disallowed by the Church as proven hoaxes.
Weeping statue and Marian apparition
File:Virgin Mary of Akita Japan.jpg apparitions in Japan.]]
Reported weeping statues are most often sculptures of the Virgin Mary and are at times accompanied by claims of Marian apparitions. A notable example is the nature of the Our Lady of Akita apparitions that was unlike other cases, as the entire nation of Japan was supposedly able to view the statue of the Virgin Mary shed tears on national television.The Everything Mary Book: The Life and Legacy of the Blessed Mother by Jenny Schroedel, John Schroedel 2006 {{ISBN|1-59337-713-4}} page 137-138
Hoaxes and skepticism
Authorities of the Catholic Church have been very careful in their approach and treatment of weeping statues, and generally set very high barriers for their acceptance.
For instance when a statue of the popular Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina in Messina, Sicily, was found to have tears of blood one day in 2002, Church officials quickly ordered tests that showed the blood belonged to a woman and then dismissed the case as a hoax.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1858430.stm Weeping statue of Padre Pio][https://web.archive.org/web/20110918104543/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/european_football/article1081044.ece Church rules out Padre Pio tears]
Skeptics point to the fact that making a fake weeping statue is relatively easy. Skeptics have provided examples of weeping statues that have been obvious hoaxes.[http://www.randi.org/jr/042304seven.html Hoaxes exposed]
Weeping statues have also been dismissed by rationalists as a purely psychological and/or fraudulent phenomenon. The witnesses are said to be deluded by their own state of mind or strong group suggestion. In this altered state of mind, they believe they see something that is not really there.Nickell, Joe. (1993). Looking for a Miracle: Weeping Icons, Relics, Stigmata, Visions & Healing Cures. Prometheus Books. pp. 56-57. {{ISBN|1-57392-680-9}}
Another likely explanation attributes the so-called tears to condensation. The tears that statues appear to weep are actually beads of condensation accounted for by the statue being made from material of varying density, with condensation forming on the denser (colder) pieces (in this case the eyes).
A number of weeping statues have been declared fake by Catholic church officials.YouTube on fake statue [www.youtube.com/watch?v=57e9OMZlghY][http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/04-07-30.html Fake statues]{{Cite web |url=http://www.undeceivingourselves.com/I-enou.htm |title=Fake Rockingham statue |access-date=2008-08-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080719063214/http://www.undeceivingourselves.com/I-enou.htm |archive-date=2008-07-19 |url-status=dead }}[http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/02/26/1046064105171.html Fake Statue article]
In 1985, a statue in Montreal was reported to be weeping and bleeding, however it turned out that the statue was smeared with the owner's blood and shaving cream.
In 1995, a Madonna statue appeared to weep blood in the town of Civitavecchia in Italy. About 60 witnesses testified to witnessing the phenomenon.{{cite web |title=Weekend: The weeping Madonna of Civitavecchia |date=2000-12-09 |website=The Guardian |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230608003348/https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2000/dec/09/weekend7.weekend1 |archive-date=2023-06-08 |url-status=live |url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2000/dec/09/weekend7.weekend1}} The local bishop said that he himself had seen it weep. The blood on the statue was later found to be male. The statue's owner, Fabio Gregori, refused to take a DNA test. After the Civitavecchia case, dozens of reputedly miraculous statues were reported. Almost all were shown to be hoaxes, where blood, red paint, or water was splashed on the faces of the statues.[https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/12436/church-custodian-on-trial-in-italy-for-weeping-statue-hoax Catholic News on Fake Weeping Statue]
In 2008, church custodian Vincenzo Di Costanzo went on trial in northern Italy for faking blood on a statue of the Virgin Mary when his own DNA was matched to the blood.{{Cite web |url=http://www.italymag.co.uk/italy/religion/weeping-madonna-trial-opens |title=Court Trial for Fake Statue |access-date=2008-08-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080517090724/http://www.italymag.co.uk/italy/religion/weeping-madonna-trial-opens |archive-date=2008-05-17 |url-status=dead }}
In 2018, at the Our Lady Guadalupe Catholic Church in Hobbs, New Mexico, a Mary statue was reported to be producing tears. In July of that year, the Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces revealed that tests confirmed the tears in fact had the chemical composition of rose scented olive oil.{{cite journal |last1=Radford |first1=Benjamin |author-link=Benjamin Radford|title=Small Town Virgin Mary 'Miracle': Olive Oil |journal=Skeptical Inquirer |date=September–October 2018 |volume=42 |issue=5}}{{cite web |last1=Nickell |first1=Joe |author-link=Joe Nickell|title=Weeping-Eye Cons |url=https://centerforinquiry.org/blog/weeping-eye-cons/ |website=Center for Inquiry |date=10 September 2018 |publisher=CFI |access-date=24 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181025030110/https://centerforinquiry.org/blog/weeping-eye-cons/ |archive-date=25 October 2018}}
List of weeping statues
File:Siracusa - Santuario della Madonna delle Lacrime - 2023-09-07 14-50-22 002.JPG in Syracuse]]
Plutarch, in chapter 38 of his Life of Coriolanus, discusses the phenomenon of weeping and bleeding statues, with special reference to the case of a statue of Fortuna addressing a crowd in Rome.{{Cite web|url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Coriolanus*.html|title=Plutarch • Life of Coriolanus}} According to Joe Nickell, "animated ones", or inanimate objects that are claimed to do things such as walking, changing facial expressions, or shedding tears, are most commonly statues in the Roman Catholic tradition. In the Book of Daniel Chapter 14 verses 1–21 the story finds Daniel setting up a trap to catch priests who were sneaking into temples to eat the offerings left at the feet of the idol Bel, which was worshipped for its seeming ability to consume food and drink.
A very small number of weeping statues have been recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, e.g. in Syracuse the shedding of tears from a Virgin Mary statue in the house of a married couple (29 August 1953) was recognized by the Catholic bishops of Sicily on 13 December 1953.Sicily statues Bäumer Marienlexikon, p.398 Chemist Luigi Garlaschelli of the University of Pavia, who has not examined the statue, which is behind glass, theorizes that the tears are due to capillary attraction with moisture seeping through a fault in the glaze of the plaster statue.{{Cite web |date=1995-07-08 |title=Science debunks miracle of weeping madonna |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science-debunks-miracle-of-weeping-madonna-1590530.html |access-date=2024-03-31 |website=The Independent |language=en}}
The following is a list of the more publicized claims. The veracity of these claims is difficult to establish and many have been declared hoaxes by Church officials.
Weeping paintings
Weeping paintings or icons are a related phenomenon, but to date not a single case of a weeping painting has been approved either by the Roman Catholic or Coptic churches and most instances have turned out to be hoaxes. However, in Eastern Orthodoxy, some cases such as a weeping St Michael icon in Rhodes have been taken as miraculous.{{Cite web |title=ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY THEN AND NOW |url=https://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/ |access-date=2024-03-31 |language=en}}
As with weeping statues, the tears exuded are often said to be of a substance which appears to be similar to blood. A painting of the Virgin Mary is said to have exuded moisture from the eyes and the fingers at St. Nicholas Albanian Orthodox Church in Chicago on 6 December 1986.Rotzoll, Brenda Warner. (2001-07-15) "Other images have captured attention". The Chicago Sun-Times, p. 27. The event gained international attention and drew many onlookers to the church.{{cite book | first = David K. | last = Fremon | title = Chicago Politics, Ward by Ward | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=VegZ4NF-7KEC&dq=%22St.+Nicholas+Albanian+Orthodox+Church%22+Mary&pg=PA237 | publisher = Indian University Press | year = 1988 | isbn = 0-253-31344-9 | page = 237}}. The moisture ceased in July 1987, but resumed a year later at which time 19 other icons were said to have also started weeping after being "anointed" with the painting's moisture.{{cite book | first = Mark | last = Moran |author2=Troy Taylor |author3=Mark Sceurman | title = Weird Illinois: Your Travel Guide to Illinois' Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=gE4P1bhDCB4C&dq=%22St.+Nicholas+Albanian+Orthodox+Church%22+Mary&pg=PA68 | publisher = Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. | year = 2005 | isbn = 0-7607-5943-X | page = 68}} Church authorities refused to allow the "tears" to be analysed by chemists.{{Cite book |last=Randi |first=James |title=An encyclopedia of claims, frauds, and hoaxes of the occult and supernatural: decidedly sceptical definitions of alternative realities |date=1995 |publisher=St. Martin's Griffin |isbn=978-0-312-15119-5 |location=New York, NY|author-link=James Randi}} A painting of Mary on plywood was said to have wept on 10 March 1992 in Barberton, Ohio;{{cite book| first=Jerome | last=Pohlen | title = Oddball Ohio: A Guide to Some Really Strange Places | url = https://archive.org/details/oddballohioguide0000pohl | url-access=registration | page = [https://archive.org/details/oddballohioguide0000pohl/page/59 59] | publisher = Chicago Review Press | year = 2004 | isbn = 1-55652-523-0}} annual pilgrimages celebrating the event were still in practice as late as 2002.Jenkins, Colette M. (2002-03-02) "Church celebrates anniversary of apparition." Akron Beacon Journal, page A12. Another painting of the Virgin Mary which drew many visitors to Christ of the Hills Monastery near Blanco, Texas in the 1980s was said to weep myrrh, but was uncovered as a fraud in the 2000s.{{Cite web |last=Archives |first=L. A. Times |date=2007-09-20 |title=Samuel Greene Jr., 63; Texas monk accused of abuse |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-sep-20-me-greene20-story.html |access-date=2024-03-31 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Texas to seize embattled monastery - UPI.com |url=https://www.upi.com/Top_News/2006/08/12/Texas-to-seize-embattled-monastery/35571155428738/ |access-date=2024-03-31 |website=UPI |language=en}}
Other similar phenomena
File:Francisco Santa Cruz 07.jpg in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, a figure to whom a "miraculous sweating" was attributed in 1795.]]
File:Cristo de Limpias.JPG, Spain, which flowed real blood.]]
In addition to the shedding of tears, throughout history there have been reports of religious images that have emitted similar or related phenomena, such as "sweating" phenomena, or the emanation of oil, blood, water, or other substances, including honey.
A particularly famous case of its time was the phenomenon that occurred in the spring of 1795 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Spain). A representation of a bust of Jesus Christ, locally invoked as the Señor de las Tribulaciones, who began to "sweat" when he was transferred to the home of a wealthy family in the city to cure the family matriarch of an illness.{{cite news|title=El Toscal recuerda hoy el milagro del Señor de las Tribulaciones|url=http://www.eldia.es/2004-04-06/santacruz/santacruz2.htm#4|access-date=11 March 2024|work=El Día|language=es}}{{cite news|title=
Tenerife, territorio para los prodigios y el milagro|url=https://diariodeavisos.elespanol.com/2017/04/tenerife-territorio-los-prodigios-milagro/|access-date=11 March 2024|work=Diario de Avisos|language=es}}
Another similar case of "miraculous sweating" that also occurred on the Spanish island of Tenerife is that of the picture or painting of Saint John the Evangelist venerated in the parish church of La Concepción de San Cristóbal de La Laguna. The phenomenon occurred during an epidemic of bubonic plague that hit the island in 1648.
More recent cases include; an image of Christ crucified in Tucumán, Argentina, which flowed a reddish liquid, identified as blood, through the Five Holy Wounds in 2011,{{cite news|title=Escultura de Jesús en la cruz derrama sangre humana|url=https://www.eldiario.ec/noticias-manabi-ecuador/193487-escultura-de-jess-en-la-cruz-derrama-sangre-humana/|access-date=11 March 2024|work=El Diario|language=es}} or the case in Brazil, of an image of the Virgin of Fátima that exudes oil and honey from 1993 to the present.{{cite news|title=¿Una Virgen que llora aceite y miel?|url=https://es.aleteia.org/2021/12/15/una-virgen-que-llora-aceite-y-miel/|access-date=11 March 2024|work=Aleteia|language=es}}
See also
References
{{Reflist|2}}
Further reading
- {{cite book
| first=Teiji
| last=Yasuda
| title=Akita: The Tears and Message of Mary
| url=https://www.101foundation.com/product-page/akita-the-tears-and-message-of-mary
| publisher=101 Foundation
| location=Asbury, New Jersey
| year=1989
| isbn=9781890137205
}}
- {{cite book
| first=Joe
| last=Nickell
| title=Looking for a Miracle: Weeping Icons, Relics, Stigmata, Visions & Healing Cures
| publisher=Prometheus Books
| location=
| year=1993
| isbn=9780879758400
}}
- {{cite book
| first=Joan Carroll
| last=Cruz
| title=Miraculous Images of Our Lady: 100 Famous Catholic Portraits and Statues
| url=https://tanbooks.com/virgin-mary/miraculous-images-of-our-lady/
| publisher=TAN Books
| location=Charlotte NC
| year=1993
| isbn=9780895554840
}}
- {{cite book
| first=Joan Carroll
| last=Cruz
| title=Miraculous Images of Our Lord: Famous Catholic Statues, Portraits and Crucifixes
| url=https://tanbooks.com/books-about-jesus/miraculous-images-of-our-lord/
| publisher=TAN Books
| location=Charlotte NC
| year=1995
| isbn=9780895554963
}}
- {{cite book
| first=Lisa J.
| last=Schwebel
| title=Apparitions, Healings, and Weeping Madonnas: Christianity and the Paranormal
| url=https://www.paulistpress.com/Products/4223-6/apparitions-healings-and-weeping-madonnas.aspx
| publisher=Paulist Press
| location=Mahwah, New Jersey
| year=2004
| isbn=9780809142231
}}
- {{cite book
| first=Wendy M.
| last=Grossman
| title=Why Statues Weep: The Best of the "Skeptic"
| publisher=Routledge
| location=
| year=2010
| isbn=9780953761128
}}
External links
- [http://www.cicap.org/en/ Italian Committee for the Investigation of Claims on the Paranormal] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110521212246/http://www.cicap.org/en/ |date=2011-05-21 }}
- [http://www.visionsofjesuschrist.com/weepingstatuesandicons.htm Photographs of statues claimed to be weeping]
- James Randi, Investigating Miracles, Italian-Style Scientific American, February 1996 [https://web.archive.org/web/20050321073256/http://www.luigigarlaschelli.it/Press/sciam.htm]
- [http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/04-07-30.html Church Says Weeping Statues Fake]
- [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_3_30/ai_n16418734/pg_1 "The 'new' idolatry"] Joe Nickell investigates and exposes numerous weeping statue hoaxes.
- [http://weeping-madonna.excerptsofinri.com/ Why does The Madonna Weep?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101024083021/http://weeping-madonna.excerptsofinri.com/ |date=2010-10-24 }}
{{Private revelation}}
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