Gisella Cardia claims to possess a statue of Mary weeping tears of blood and is requesting “mutual respect” from the Pope after the Vatican issued new procedures for verifying the authenticity of Marian apparitions and other spiritual phenomena.
“I’m not against the pope, but what’s needed is mutual respect,” Cardia said. “They need to stop saying nonsense about me and try to understand better.”
Undeterred by her local bishop’s declaration in March that the events were not supernatural, Cardia remains steadfast. She continues to organise monthly gatherings of devotees, who fervently pray in front of the image of the Virgin, eagerly awaiting her latest revelations.
Cardia, a resident of Trevignano, a small town roughly 45 minutes north of Rome, has a unique past. She used to work as a ceramics salesperson and was once given a two-year suspended jail sentence on charges of fraud related to the bankruptcy of her ceramics company.
Six years ago, she and her husband visited Medjugorje, a famous site of an alleged Marian apparition. She claimed to have brought a small statue of the Virgin Mary with her, which later started to shed tears of blood.
Last year, a private investigator announced that analysis of the tears revealed that the tears contained pigs’ blood. Read more
Additional readingNews category: Odd Spot.