Statue of Virgin Mary 'Tearing Blood' Gathers Crowds in Italian Town

A peculiar and yet unexplained happening have been drawing crowds to Carmiano, a small town in the southern Italian province of Lecce, as a Statue of the Virgin Mary – or Madonna, as she is known in Italy – was spotted “tearing blood”, as the daily newspaper La Repubblica puts it.

The mysterious phenomenon of a red trail on the statue’s face was reportedly first spotted on 3 August by a local child, who was playing on Paolino Arnesano Square. Since then, the pilgrimage to the statue has been relentless, religious authorities say, with young, elderly, local and even foreigners visiting the monument to pay their respects and pray.

​Religious authorities will now reportedly investigate the incident, as they still believe that it is too early to say with certainty whether the phenomenon is indeed “a miracle, an effect of the excessive heat of recent days or, even worse, someone's joke”, according to Don Riccardo Calabrese, a parish priest of the church of Sant'Antonio Abate in Carmiano.

In a lengthy post published on the parish’s Facebook page, Don Riccardo shared his impressions after visiting the Virgin Mary Statue, to conclude that he could not express “an objective opinion on the event”, but argued that a real miracle he has now witnessed was a “procession” of people on the square, who “out of curiosity or faith” left home and visited the monument in such crowds.

“I saw children, young people, adults and the elderly who gathered in that place that symbolized the blessing of Mary for our Carmiano and together they looked up and looked at the face of Our Lady”, Don Riccardo wrote in the post.

“And if tomorrow they tell us that there has been no miracle, beware! The most beautiful miracle is that we feel we are a close community around Mary”, he concluded.

For Don Luigi Manca, a vicar in the diocese of Lecce, the phenomenon, whether it is indeed a supernatural event or just its "representation in a painting”, is a good sign, as he says it “transmits compassion”.

“The mother of God has compassion for us all. And this is a good feeling, it has a positive meaning: we grasp this genuine aspect without obsessively seeking the supernatural or miraculous aspect”, the vicar said as quoted by Corriere del Mezzogiorno newspaper.

​But some observers on social media did not agree, suggesting that the event rather represents another sign of 2020 being doomed.

​The statue of Virgin Mary was placed on the square on 3 September last year to mark the anniversary of a 1943 bombing that never happened - a bomb was dropped on the exact same location but failed to explode.