Crying statues - Truth or deception?
There is hardly a more delicate and sick topic of faith. By faith, it is not argued, but it is often speculated with it. That is why (aside from the constant skepticism of the learned brotherhood), researchers from all over the world have been trying to understand what is behind the phenomenon of crying religious statues, a phenomenon that many believers explain by divine intervention and warning.
Wailing statues are not new - only over the last hundred years have seen at least fifty cases worldwide. Typically, the images of Christian saints or Virgin Mary tear tears of blood, perfumed oil, honey or water. Religious societies accept them as a real miracle
proof of the existence of superior power,
but the worrying is that many studies and tests have proven that it is probably not a pure game with the belief of many people. Where is the truth?
The oldest preserved source testifying to such a phenomenon dates back to 1527 when a statue in Italy shed tears before the Romans were robbed of Karl V's troops, capturing Clement VII, and undermining the political authority of the Vatican in European countries. In 1719, the Sicilian city of Syracuse bowed to the weeping statue of the world, Lucius. It is believed that the "tendency" of saints to mourn the sins of human beings begins. Sicilian Catholics describe not one such case, including the widely published 1949 story, when a mysterious substance, which lab analyzes declare to be close to human tears, starts to flow from the eyes of a Virgin Mary statuette, given as a gift to two newlyweds. Although the authenticity of the phenomenon is not fully proven,
However, the real boom of weeping statues comes in the 20th century.
There have been documented dozens of cases in which images of saints shed tears of blood, water and aromatic oils. And here disappointments start. The development and spread of science over the last hundred years has begun to be confused with religion. Various prominent laboratories and specialists began to test the truth in what had previously been a territory reserved only for the church - miracles. That's how the scams are.
In 1995, an Italian family from Civitavecchia placed in her garden an imported statue of Our Lady, hoping to improve the health of her young son. One day, their daughter, who carries Madonna's flowers every day, notices that bloody tears flow over her cheeks. The child immediately goes to his parents and they bring the news to the local priest. The Vatican, traditionally skeptical of such miracles, confiscated the statue and gave it for laboratory analysis of its own experts. They find that
the blood is really human, but it comes from a man -
a fact confirmed by DNA analysis. The father of the sick boy, Fabio Gregory, refuses to give a DNA test.
The case has just been repeated recently. In 2008, the Italian cliff Vicenco di Constance went to court for the bloody tears flowing from the heart of the Madonna in his church, containing his own DNA. Dio Costantzo is accused of insulting religion and condemned by the Vatican.
Explosions do not stop there. In May 2004, a large gypsy statue of Our Lady at the Vietnamese Catholic Center "Inala" in Brisbane, Australia, began to release aromatic substance from her eyes, nose, forehead and fingers. Thousands of believers flock to the place to worship the miracle and be cured of their illnesses. But Brisbane Archbishop John Battersby is not in a hurry to believe and convenes a committee to investigate the authenticity of the phenomenon. Team Leader
Dr. Adrian Farrell puts his statue and tears on gas chromatography,
mass spectroscopy and X-rays and comes up with the following conclusions: the oil-smelling oil on the object is identical to a mark sold on the market; the red substance found on crosses and statuettes around it is not blood; in the statue were drilled with two small holes through which the oil can be injected. The Commission accepts that what has happened can not be described as a miracle, and it is most likely a good-hearted speculation by Father Joseph Nguyen Tan Limem from the Catholic Center, which at the same time collects money to help the poor in Africa.
There have also been documented dozens of other cases of unhealed miracles - scientists have proven, for example, that tears on the face of Jesus Christ on a street in New York are the result of natural processes that condense moisture from the air into the paint of the statue and thus form spots, like tears. The mourning of the Virgin Mary from Grangek, Ireland, were reassured by the statue makers themselves - they admitted that
the glue they used to attach the eyes to her head is moistened at certain temperatures and so they can "tarnish".
Of course, many cases have been documented, in which science has stretched hands impotently. Perhaps the most famous one dates back to 1973 when the deaf sister Agnes Sasagawa from Akita in Japan notices that the right hand of the Virgin Mary's statue in her church began to drop blood.
The phenomenon begins on June 28 and stops on September 29, when the wound closes miraculously. On the same day the nuns notice that the statue begins to "sweat" on the forehead and the neck. A year later, on January 4, 1974, the image began to cry. This phenomenon continues at intervals over the next six years and eight months. The Japanese Virgin cried exactly 101 times. Curiously, at the same time as the statue was bleeding, Sister Agnes received stigma on her left hand. Reverend John Schoiger Ito, Bishop of Niigata, ordered a scientific inquiry that has been running for eight years. Sagisaka University of Akita, a professor of legal medicine, confirms that
blood, tears and sweat are no doubt human.
However, it has to be admitted that at that time there are not yet DNA tests to alleviate the suspicion that they come from the body of one of the Church's employees.
How can a statue cry if it's not a miracle? Italian scientist Dr. Luigi Castanelli answers this question: "You need a hollow statue made of porous material such as gypsum or ceramics. It should be glossy or painted with water-repellent paint or varnish. If the statue is then filled with liquid (for example, through a hole in the head), the porous material will absorb it, but the gloss will stop leaking out. However, if the polish is scratched lightly on or around the eyes, tears such as tears that seem to materialize from the air will leak from them. If the cavity behind the eyes is small enough, there is no trace in the icon after the filling has passed. I put this trick in check and he was extremely sure to amaze everyone present. " The same effect can be achieved
if the statue is put on cotton, soaked in blood, water, oil or other liquids.
After learning this, many traders even start selling "Make a Worry Statue" yourself.
Although it is often the intention of fraudulent statues to have good intentions - to cure a sick person, to raise money for a noble cause, or simply to reinforce the faith of the people in a materialistic century, this practice brings its dose of cynicism and as a whole was not approved by the church. Seattle pastor Roger Smith summed up her position: "Catholics do not worship pictures or statues. They are just a way to surrender something to God, but they themselves are not gods. " Many scientists note that belief in bleeding and sorrowful images exclusively
very much resembles the belief in spiritualistic phenomena like the mediums
and "conversations" with the afterlife. A remarkable feature of the phenomenon is that it appears almost exclusively in Catholic imagery (few cases of orthodox icons have been documented in recent years). Skeptics also point to the tremendous economic opportunity they offer such miracles - thousands of believers tend to give a nice and daring trip to the phenomenon, a souvenir of the place, or a donation to provide them with healing. Whatever the reason the statues cry, one thing is certain - they have become one of the main "apples of discord" between the church and the scientific circles fighting for the hearts and minds of men.
Source: www.psychologytoday.com
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