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.
Prosecutors ordered the lab tests from Emiliano Giardina, a forensic geneticist who worked on the case of Yara Gambirasio, a teenager murdered in 2010, Corriere della Sera reported. The newspaper said the tests, completed on Thursday, attributed the blood stains to Cardia’s genetic profile. The result is expected to be handed to prosecutors on 28 February.
Cardia’s lawyer, Solange Marchignoli, suggested that the presence of Cardia’s DNA did not rule out a supernatural phenomenon.
“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?”
Cardia, who has a previous conviction for bankruptcy fraud, bought the statue in 2016 at a Catholic pilgrimage site in Medjugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It later became the centrepiece of the pilgrimage site she created in Trevignano Romano, with people from across Italy flocking to the town for monthly worship, much to the irritation of local residents.
Cardia reportedly left Trevignano, but it is unclear where she is now. Marchignoli said: “I don’t know where she’s currently praying, but I know for a fact that she is moved by a deep faith and has nothing to gain from this.”
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.
