Italian 'mystic' may face trial after DNA match with blood on Virgin Mary statue [View all]

A self-styled mystic who drew hundreds of pilgrims to a town near Rome by claiming that a statue of the Virgin Mary wept tears of blood could face trial after a DNA test indicated the blood was hers.

Gisella Cardia, who also claimed that the statue was transmitting messages to her, was last year declared a “fraud” by the Roman Catholic church, which subsequently tightened its rules on supernatural phenomena.

Prosecutors in the port city of Civitavecchia opened their own fraud investigation into Cardia in 2023 after a private investigator claimed the blood on the statue, which at the time was placed in a glass case on a hill in Trevignano Romano, a town overlooking Lake Bracciano, near Rome, had come from a pig.

Some people alleged they were defrauded by Cardia, who created a foundation to collect donations that she said would go towards setting up a centre for sick children.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/14/italian-mystic-may-face-trial-after-dna-match-with-bleeding-virgin-mary-statue?CMP=bsky_gu