Santa Maria delle Grazie (Our Lady of Grace) parish in the small Italian town of Casalba has found itself in the media spotlight after a statue of St. Padre Pio appeared to show a tear of blood trickling down its face.
The discovery was made in April, when a parishioner noticed an unusual detail on the face of the saint from Pietrelcina: A reddish tear, resembling blood, appeared to be falling from its left eye.
The news quickly reached the parish priest, Father Girolamo Capuano, who went to the church to verify what had happened and attempt, without success, to clean off the stain. The statue of Padre Pio, which has stood at the entrance of this Italian church for two decades, has been removed for examination in order to determine the origin of the phenomenon.
Speaking to Mediaset Italia’s program Mattino Cinque, Capuano urged prudence and emphasized that bringing the matter to public attention to clarify the facts “does not stem from any desire for popularity.”
Furthermore, he insisted that such “signs” are “given to all so that they may be shared with prudence, love, and discernment,” while also stating that they should be made known “because many people begin a journey of faith” through them.
The Italian priest, who verified via security cameras that no one had tampered with the statue, reiterated that in his view, it is “an authentic sign that comes from God,” although he asked people to wait for the necessary verification.
“What convinces me the most is that we have a camera monitoring the statue day and night for more than 10 years. I have personally reviewed all the footage from April 1st to the 30th. The tear appeared on the 18th, or at least that was when we saw it. No one approached the statue, either by day or by night, to do anything to it. That reinforces my personal conviction and my faith in Padre Pio,” he said.
The priest noted several striking elements: “The statue is made of fiberglass, and the reddish color of the tear raises questions. Furthermore, the path of the tear is so perfect that not even a painter like Michelangelo could reproduce something like it.”
Regardless of the investigationʼs findings, which must determine whether the stain contains hemoglobin or another substance, Capuano insists that “they cannot take our faith away from us.”
In 2015, a reported case of an image of the Virgin Mary weeping circulated in the same town, although investigations concluded that the phenomenon was caused by rainwater seepage.
In accordance with the Vatican’s Norms for Proceeding in the Discernment of Alleged Supernatural Phenomena, the bishop of the Diocese of Capua, Pietro Lagnese, will lead the preliminary investigation before submitting the findings to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF).
According to these norms, published by the Vatican in 2024, it is up to diocesan bishop to examine cases in dialogue with his corresponding bishops’ conference and under the supervision of the DDF.
Once the facts have been investigated, the bishop must send the results to the dicastery, which analyzes both the material received and the procedure followed by the prelate. Until the DDF issues a definitive judgment, the bishop “will refrain from any public declaration regarding the authenticity or supernaturality of these phenomena.”
By Almudena Martínez-Bordiú
EWTN News
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.