Italian ‘mystic’ may face trial after DNA match with blood on Virgin Mary statue

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.

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Cardia’s lawyer, Solange Marchignoli, suggested that the presence of Cardia’s DNA did not rule out a supernatural phenomena.

“The DNA stain warrants further investigation,” Marchignoli told Corriere. “We are waiting to find out whether it’s a mixed or single profile.” She argued that while it was obvious there would be traces of Cardia’s DNA because she had “kissed and handled the statue”, it could have been mixed up with others, possibly even that of the Virgin Mary. “Who can say? Do you know the Madonna’s DNA?”

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Apparitions of the Virgin Mary and weeping statues have been part of Catholicism since time immemorial, but since last May only the pope has the final word on what constitutes a supernatural event. Before then, self-styled prophets and local bishops had the power to endorse such an occurrence.