Our Lady of Tears – Syracuse, Sicily August 1953
Our Lady who wept
You cannot visit Syracuse, or Siracusa as it is known in Italy, without visiting the Sanctuary of Our Lady who Wept. Honestly, we were more than a little skeptical, until we discovered all the invaluable and indisputable scientific evidence that assured us that it was legit. Like Bishop Ettore Baranzini, we have always had reservations when it comes to alleged apparitions and alleged miracles. Only when Mother Church verifies do we write and make programs.
Our story begins in Syracuse on August 29, 1953, five months before Antonina and Angelo Jannuso got married. As they were a struggling young couple, with Angelo a poor worker earning the minimum minimum wage, they accepted the kind invitation of his brother and moved into his little house on Via degli Orti di E. Giorgio. On the day of their marriage they received as a wedding gift a plaster plaque of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Although they were what we would call lukewarm Catholics, barely fulfilling their ecclesiastical duties by going to church on Sundays, they reverently placed the sheetrock on the wall above her bed.
Soon after they got married, they discovered that they would know the blessing of giving birth to a child. The couple was delighted, but typical of Sicily’s poor working class, things weren’t going to be easy. They found out that Antonina had toxemia. This not only caused him excruciating seizures, the seizures sometimes resulted in fits of blindness. On the day of the miracle, August 29, Antonina became blind due to a seizure resulting from her seizures. She was totally blind from three in the morning until half past eight at night, when she fully recovered her sight.
She later wrote that she turned to the image of the Immaculate Heart of Mary on her bed, to thank Our Lady for restoring her sight, when to her utter amazement what she saw, but the plaque of Our Lady was weeping. He called his sister-in-law and her aunt who, when telling them what he had seen, thought that he was delusional due to his illness. She said that she then insisted that they look closely at the image of Our Lady. Reluctantly they did as she asked.
When they approached the image, they also saw the tears flowing from Our Lady’s eyes, and they testified to the fact that they also saw some tears running down Her face to the head of her bed. Needless to say, upon witnessing the crying of the image, they had mixed feelings: fear mixed with wonder and wonder. They immediately set out to notify the neighbors. They removed the plaque from the wall and moved it outside so the neighbors could see what they had seen. The neighbors could not help but confirm what they too had seen. The image of the Virgin shed tears!
Visitors came from far and near to witness the miraculous phenomena for themselves. People are always looking for the supernatural! Not only the curious came, but also a very respected gentleman in the neighborhood, a certain Mario Messina; and after he, too, noticed tears welling up in the image’s eyes, he removed the plaque from the wall to see if possibly the tears might not escape through the plasterboard from a concealed repository. Upon examination, he could do nothing more than state that he could see no evidence to question the miraculous formation of tears on the plate. They blotted the plate and tears quickly formed on the dried surface.
As the crowds swelled to the small house to see the image, the authorities, with the permission of the Jannuso, removed the plaque from the wall and hung it on the outside wall of the house to satisfy the curiosity of the people. all who have visited. heard about the miraculous event. Seeing that the numbers were increasing, rather than decreasing, and that it was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain any semblance of order, the local carabiniere decided to take the badge to the local police station. The image continued to cry, even as it was carefully carried to the local police station. But once inside the station, not forty minutes had passed when the image stopped crying. Consequently, he was restored to his rightful home: the home where the Jannuso lived.
Now the people had not moved from outside the cottage. Thus, at 2 am on Sunday, August 30, the plaque, which had cried again, was placed on a pillow for all to see and venerate. On Monday, the plaque was nailed to the wall. Whereupon, people began to collect tears in handkerchiefs, pieces of cotton and all kinds of scraps of cloth. Our Lady, as the kind and obliging Mother that she is, was able to assure her children that a miracle had indeed taken place, for them! Since it was not well attached to the wall, they decided to take the plaque to the house across the street and place it on an altar specially designed for this purpose. The crowd kept coming. As they approached the image of Our Lady, they knelt down and began to pray the Rosary. This done, the Rosary was finished; the plaque was gently carried back to Jannuso’s house.
investigations begin
Upon learning of this miracle, three priests visited the Jannuso family and verified, with their own eyes, what others had seen: indeed, the image on the plaque was crying! One of the priests prudently notified the Chancery. So the Foreign Ministry convened an investigative committee made up of highly respected priests, four scientists and three credible witnesses. Satisfied that the mix was complete and balanced, the Chancery directed them to go to Jannuso’s house and carefully examine the situation.
The delegation arrived at the Jannuso home on the morning of Tuesday, September 1. Our Lady once again pleased her children and allowed the image to weep. As the image of Our Lady wept, the delegation carefully inspected the plaque. Not only were they able to witness the weeping of the image, but they were given the opportunity to examine the plaque, as tears cascaded down the image’s face, filling the cup that Our Lady’s image had gently formed with Her hand. , with which She sustained Her heart to Her children. They found that although the front of the plate was wet from tears, the back of the plate was dry. They carefully took samples of the tears to take to the laboratory for scientific examination.
The team of scientists carefully collected approximately twenty drops of liquid into a thin, sterile tube and poured the liquid into a sterile vial. Immediately afterwards, the vial was taken to a laboratory to be thoroughly examined by chemists and doctors. They took this sample of tears and compared it with tears from an adult and from a child. They found that the tears from the image of Our Lady contained the same liquid composition found in human tears tested. His conclusion: The liquid brought from the plate at Jannuso’s house was like that of a human’s tears.
The tests concluded on September 9, 1953, and the findings were verified by the following physicians: Michele Cassola, Francesco Cotzie, Leopoldo La Rosa, and Mario Marietta.
This was what the Church needed! As we know, the Church will send the most scrupulous Devil’s Advocates to dispute, if necessary, any questionable features of an alleged miracle. Using men of science as well as the Hierarchy, when the findings proved beyond any doubt the veracity of the miraculous fact, then the Mother Church was free to act; and the act that she did!
The Archbishop of Syracuse visited Jannuso’s house and inspected the plaque and without saying anything, he returned the next day to pray the Rosary, together with the forts who had gathered. His approval was joined by many other bishops who had visited Jannuso’s house and witnessed the flow of tears. Then Cardinal Ernesto Ruffini made the following statement in a radio broadcast on December 13:
“After careful sifting of the numerous reports, after having verified the positive results of the diligent chemical analysis under which the accumulated tears were examined, we have unanimously issued the sentence that the reality of the facts cannot be doubted.” .
That’s not enough? On October 17, 1954, His Holiness Pope Pius XII further affirmed the miraculous tears with the following statement on national radio:
“…we acknowledge the unanimous declaration of the Episcopal Conference held in Sicily on the reality of that event. Will men understand the mysterious language of those tears?”
Reference: “The Many Faces of Mary – book II”