What’s going on when the Virgin Mary appears and statues weep?
The answers aren’t just about science or the supernatural
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By Mathew Schmalz
College of the Holy Cross
The Conversation
Claims of appearances of the Virgin Mary and weeping statues have been common in Catholicism. And now they're going to get a closer look - but on a worldwide scale.
The Pontificia Academia Mariana Internationalis, or PAMI, recently announced an "observatory" to investigate claims of appearances of the Virgin Mary and reports of statues of her weeping oil and blood.
This announcement extends PAMI's mission of promoting devotion to Mary and study of phenomena related to her. While still waiting for full Vatican approval, the observatory will train investigators to study mystical phenomena in cooperation with church authorities - for example, trying to determine the substance of reported tears.
Investigating the supernatural has always been a delicate task in the Catholic Church, which has to balance the faith of believers with the possibility of fraud.
Marian apparitions
Catholics believe Mary is the mother of Jesus Christ, and the mother of God, who still makes her presence known. And the Catholic Church has officially recognized a number of sites where Mary has reportedly appeared around the globe.
The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on a cloak in Mexico City has long been revered by Catholics as a miracle confirming Mary's appearance to the peasant Juan Diego in 1531. In Fatima, Portugal, in 1917, three children claimed that the Virgin Mary had visited them several times. Crowds drawn by the children's prophecy that Mary would reappear and perform a miracle reported seeing the sun "dance in the sky."
The most recent Marian apparition that a Catholic bishop has declared "worthy of belief" was in Buenos Aires province, Argentina, in 2016. A local Catholic woman told her priest that visions had begun with rosary prayer beads glowing in multiple homes and progressed to Mary warning her of humanity's "self-destruction."
Mary's tears
There is also a long history of claims of weeping Mary statues. A well-known example is the Madonna of Syracuse, Sicily - a plaster statue that seemed to shed tears. Investigators appointed by the church said the liquid was chemically similar to human tears. The shrine now housing the image is shaped like a tear drop.
Recently, weeping statues have been reported in places as distant from each other as Paszto, Hungary, and Hobbs, New Mexico. It is, however, rare for the Catholic Church to say that an apparently weeping statue has a supernatural cause.
Mary's tears have special significance for Catholics. She is often pictured as crying over the sins of the world and the pain she endured in her earthly life. Mary's earthly sorrows are depicted by seven swords piercing her flaming heart.
Given Mary's religious and symbolic significance, it is not surprising for a supposed apparition site or a weeping statue to become an object of devotion.
And when this happens, the local bishop sometimes decides to investigate.