The weeping statue of Naju
From June 1985 a Virgin Mary statue in Julia Kim's house in Naju was said to weep tears, then blood; she also reported messages and Eucharistic miracles.
1985 CE · 35.02, 126.71 · status: disputed
The account
Pilgrims came in thousands. The Archdiocese of Gwangju ruled in 1998 that the events were not supernatural and later warned Catholics against taking part.
The sceptical view
The Church found no evidence; blood tests on the 'tears' were never independently published.
The researched reading
A weeping statue in a visionary’s home, never independently tested and rejected by the local Church. Human application of the liquids is the most likely explanation.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Undetermined | 30% | The share the reading had given to fabrication on doubt rather than evidence: the record does not settle it either way. |
| A cultural story | 25% | Naju grew into a devotional movement with messages and pilgrimages that rewarded new wonders. |
| Perception, memory or mind | 20% | Pilgrims expecting to see tears perceive them, and visions and messages fit a pattern of personal mystical experience. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 15% | The statue was in the visionary’s own house, and the tears, blood and Eucharistic claims were never independently tested; weeping statues examined elsewhere proved to be applied liquids. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 7% | The Archdiocese of Gwangju examined the events and found nothing supernatural. |
| A known natural phenomenon | 3% | Condensation or glaze faults cannot produce blood. |
Official position: The Archdiocese of Gwangju ruled in 1998 that the events were not supernatural and later warned Catholics against taking part.