Weeping Statues of Mary

Weeping Statues of “Our Lady”

Whenever a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary weeps, it creates a lot of interest, or at least discussion within the Church, as well as among the general population. Spiritually, too, it can have a significant impact on many souls.

For some people, “seeing, is believing”; for others no such phenomena will convince them it is of God. For most, usually the first questions asked are, “Is it real?” And, “Can it be proven to be genuine, or of supernatural origin?”

These are healthy and important questions. In each case, it is beneficial to everyone if these questions are fully investigated and answered confidently by spiritual and scientific experts. But, oftentimes, it may take longer than expected to reach definite conclusions. Priests, bishops, and congregations must proceed with caution when such an incident is reported to be happening in their location. And, there are those incidences when the local priest or bishop: would simply rather just ignore it altogether; hope and wait for the statue to stop weeping so people will lose interest; or, they may even attempt to control circumstances in ways that will cause public interest to quickly diminish or cease. How wonderful when a blessed occurrence of this kind is overseen by an understanding and faith-filled priest or bishop, who is willing to be supportive, even courageous. Because although a supernatural happening of this sort may usher in many graces of God, it also may be faced with great spiritual warfare.

It is not the purpose of this article to wrestle with questions of authenticity. Each citing is a unique case and each will encounter its own set of problems and questions. In the end, it is always a matter of personal choice what one believes. The Church never insists that anyone believe. But, a choice to believe in something “supernatural” will inherently include an element of personal faith.

In genuine cases of lacrimation, tears of oil, blood and/or human tears flow from the eyes or face of a religious statue of Mary. Sometimes they are accompanied with apparitions (appearances) or locutions (messages) to an individual or individuals, and sometimes they are not. The statue may weep only once, a few times, or it can occur on a regular basis over a much longer period of time. There may, or may not be, specific patterns as to time, place, amount of liquid exuded, etc.

But the Big question is, “Why?” “Why does this statue of Mary weep?” “Why have other statues wept?” The answers truly lie with God. Our Blessed Mother, Mary, herself, has many times given the reason, or specific reasons, through an accompanying message to an individual. So, it is best to discern what the reason may be in light of any surrounding supernatural messages given to a chosen individual, or explanations given by proper Church authority. Typically today, the local priest or spiritual director of a visionary or locutionist will review all messages from Our Lady before they are shared with anyone else.

Gathering information from past occurrences of weeping statues of Mary, we can say that often Our Blessed Mother is telling people that she (and God Himself) is sorrowfully grieved by the sins of mankind. She urges us to “Pray, Pray, Pray.” She calls for conversion of our hearts, prayer, fasting, penance, the Mass, and rosary. And, she cries out to us, to make peace with everyone and to be peace to others. We should pray to lead lives of holiness, love and forgiveness. With penance and reparation we can dry the tears of Mary, Our Mother.

Statues of Mary have wept around the world throughout the ages. But it seems the number of weeping statues has increased during the past century, just as the number of Marian apparitions increased tremendously during the 20^th century.

Our Lady of Naju, Korea

If you’d like to study Madonna statues that have had supernatural events associated with them, here are some names and dates of the better known, old and new occurrences (several of these statues have wept):

Lady of the Pillar Zaragoza, Spain ( 40)

Lady of Monserratt Monserratt, Spain ( 718)

The Sweet Mother Netherlands (1380)

Lady, Star of the Sea Netherlands (1400)

Lady of the Thorns France (1400)

Health of the Sick Patzcuaro, Mexico (1565)

Lady of Lujan Lujan, Argentina (1630)

Virgin of Charity (image) Cobre, Cuba (1600)

Lady of the Santa Ana Santa Ana, Mexico (1700)

Lady of the Thunderbolt Guadalajara, Mexico (1807)

≠Rosa Mystica Montichiari, Italy (1947)

Weeping Madonna of Syracuse, Sicily (1953)

Holy Mother of Akita Akita, Japan (1973)

Our Lady of Naju Naju, Korea (1985-1994)

Mystical Rose statue Brooklyn, New York (1984)

Virgin Mary statue in

St.Eliz.Ann Seton Ch. Lake Ridge, VA USA (1992)

Miraculous Madonna San Tomas, Mexico (1992)

Our Lady of Philippines Agoo (Manila), Philippines (1993)

Madonna of Grangecon County Wicklow, Ireland (1994)

*Virgin Mary of Santa Rosa

De Lima Church stat. Rincon, Puerto Rico (1994)

Our Lady of Lourdes stat. Diego Martin, W.Trinidad (1996)

White Madonna Mura, Spain (1998)

Virgin of Guadalupe stat. Las Vegas, NV USA (1998)

*Virgin of Civitavecchia Civitavecchia, Italy (1995-2001)

*Our Lady of Coromoto Caracas, Venezuela (2003)

*Rosa Mystica statue Caracas, Venezuela (2003)

≠The original Rosa Mystica statue was the first of dozens of Rosa Mysticas or Mystical Rose statues to have wept throughout the world since 1947.

*These statues of Mary are known to have wept one or more times during the past year (2002-2003).

Note: The phenomena of a statue, portrait, or figurine weeping [water, oil, or blood] is technically known as “lacrimation,” or lachrymation. For more information on phenomenon such as these, that have occurred throughout the world particularly during the past century, we recommend the excellent video, “Tears from Heaven.”

To view news articles on weeping statues of Mary, click here.