Case file · Apparition / miracle
Weeping Madonna of Syracuse
From 29 August to 1 September 1953 a plaster plaque of the Virgin in the home of Antonina and Angelo Iannuso in Syracuse reportedly wept; a medical commission analysed the liquid as human-like tears, and the Sicilian bishops accepted the event that December.
1953 CE · 37.07, 15.28 · status: disputed
The sceptical view
The plaque was not tested for hidden reservoirs; sceptics point to many later weeping images shown to be fakes.
The researched reading
A well-witnessed weeping with a lab-tested liquid, but the object was never checked for a hidden source. Experiments show how such plaster images can weep, so fraud remains the leading explanation.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Undetermined | 25% | The share the reading had given to fabrication on doubt rather than evidence: the record does not settle it either way. |
| A cultural story | 23% | Weeping Madonnas are a deep Italian tradition; the Church accepted it within months amid strong popular devotion, and the story became a national shrine. |
| Perception, memory or mind | 15% | Crowds watching for tears interpret moisture as weeping; reports multiply in a religious atmosphere. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 15% | The plaque was not tested for hidden channels; chemist Luigi Garlaschelli has shown how porous plaster with a glazed surface weeps when filled with liquid from behind, and many later weeping images were proven fakes. |
| A known natural phenomenon | 12% | Glazed plaster can sweat with condensation in humid late-summer Sicily, though the flow reported exceeds normal condensation. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 10% | A medical commission analysed the liquid as similar to human tears and many saw it flow; without tests of the object, a miracle cannot be weighed above fraud. |
Official position: The Sicilian bishops accepted the weeping as a sign in December 1953 after a medical commission analysed the liquid.