ð Share this article Self-proclaimed Visionary Confronts Deception Court Case Regarding Claims Madonna Statue Shed Blood A self-styled visionary who attracted many of pilgrims to a town near Rome by asserting that a figure of the Virgin Mary wept bloody tears has been sent to trial for suspected fraud. Central Accusations and Details The accused woman, who also stated the statue was transmitting communications to her, will be tried together with her spouse, Gianni Cardia, in April the coming year. They are charged with staging false visions of the Virgin Mary and making untrue forecasts of catastrophes to attract donations from their religious supporters. Cardia drew hundreds of people each month to Trevignano Romano, a lakeside town near Rome, to worship before the statue, which had been placed in a temporary shrine on a hill. Over a number of years, the alleged scam collected â¬365,000 in donations from the pilgrims, who believed their funds would go towards establishing a facility for ill children. Additional Allegations Cardia is also charged with making false prophecies, including claiming the figure warned her that the devil was concocting calamities, for example an tremor that would devastate Rome and the seizure of the Catholic church by communism. Legal authorities in the coastal city of Civitavecchia initiated an inquiry in 2023 after a private investigator asserted the blood on the statue originated from a animal. Cardia was later labeled a fraud by the Catholic church, which subsequently tightened its rules on supernatural phenomena as part of a crackdown on scams and hoaxes. âDespite the irony, she finds comfort, viewing this as a chance to clarify the facts openly and conclusively stop all rumors, confusion, and disputes,â said Cardiaâs lawyer, the attorney. Context and Related Incidents The accused, who has a prior conviction for financial crime, purchased the figure in 2016 at a Catholic holy place in MeÄugorje. News of the case came as the Vaticanâs religious authority declared that alleged visions of Jesus in the European town of Dozulé in the 1970s were deemed non-miraculous. Jesus was said to have shown himself to a woman 49 times requesting that a âmagnificent crucifixâ that would ensure the cleansing of sin be constructed in the town. The office announced that the alleged visions were âfinally judged to be non-miraculousâ. The pontiff authorized a ruling last week directing Catholics not to refer to Mary as the âjoint saviorâ, that is to say that she assisted her son Jesus save the world from sin. His action was intended to combat the spread of an exaggerated worship of the Madonna, often on social media, that has encouraged claims of visions, crying statues, and self-styled seers. The former Pope Francis cautioned in 2023 that appearances of Mary âdo not always occurâ.