Saint of the day August 31: Virgin of Tears. Catholic Saints

Every August 31, the Virgin of Tears is celebrated, a Marian devotion that emerged in Syracuse (Italy) in the mid-20th century, when an image of the Immaculate Heart of Mary shed tears repeatedly.

In 1994, Pope Saint John Paul II, visiting the place, referred to those tears as “tears of pain for those who reject the love of God… tears of pain and hope” for the conversion of the world.

The tears of a Mother

The miracle occurred in 1953, in the humble home of the spouses Angelo Lannuso and Antonina Lucia Giusti. The couple had in their bedroom an image of the Virgin Mary made in relief on plaster. For four days, between August 29 and September 1, tears fell from the image’s eyes.

The first to witness the miracle was Antonina, at that time pregnant with her first child. The Lannuso couple had received the image of the Virgin as a wedding present.

The local priest, Father Giuseppe Bruno, arrived at the Lannuso house accompanied by some people, among them some scientists, such as Dr. Michele Cassola, an openly atheist doctor. At the scene, the experts – who would later make up the commission investigating the events – were direct witnesses of the miracle, which from that day on would not be repeated.

Investigation stage

The fluid from the Virgin’s face was collected and subjected to various studies by a scientific commission, chaired by Cassola.

The main study was a comparison between two samples of human tears – those of a child and an adult – and the tears shed by the image. The study revealed that the fluid coming from the eyes of the image of the Immaculate Conception corresponded to the usual compound of human tears. Once the investigations were completed, the commission found no scientific explanation for the phenomenon and limited itself to presenting its final report on September 9, 1953, a forceful report stating that what happened had no known natural explanation.

Three months later, on December 12, 1953, the day the Church celebrates the Virgin of Guadalupe, the bishops of Sicily unanimously declared that the image of the Mother of God had cried.

Oh, the tears of Mary! (Pope Pius XII)

Almost a year later, on October 17, 1954, Pope Pius XII made reference to this prodigious fact in a radio message on the occasion of the regional Marian congress of Sicily.

The Pope said: “Will men understand the arcane language of these tears? Oh, the tears of Mary! On Golgotha ​​they were tears of pain for Jesus and sadness for the sin of the world. Do you still cry for the new wounds in the mystical Body of Jesus?… Or do you cry for so many children in whom error and guilt have extinguished the life of grace and seriously offend the divine majesty? Or are they tears of waiting for the late return of other children, who were once faithful and who are now carried away by false mirages among the hosts of God’s enemies?

“Tears of pain for those who reject the love of God” (Saint John Paul II)

The large influx of devotees motivated the construction of a sanctuary dedicated to the Virgin of Tears in 1968, which would be renovated in 1994. That same year, in November, Saint John Paul II consecrated the place.

In the framework of his pastoral visit to Catania and Syracuse, the pilgrim Pope said that the Virgin’s tears “testify to the presence of Mother Church in the world… They are tears of pain for those who reject the love of God, for separated families or who have difficulties, for the youth threatened by consumer civilization and often disoriented, for the violence that still causes so much bloodshed, and for the misunderstandings and hatreds that open deep abysses between men and peoples,” he added.

Pope Francis: “To dry the tears”

On May 5, 2016, Pope Francis presided over the prayer vigil called “To dry the tears”, within the framework of the Jubilee of Mercy, an occasion for which the reliquary of the Virgin of Tears was brought to the Vatican. On that occasion, the Holy Father highlighted that “next to every cross there is always the Mother of Jesus. With her mantle, she wipes away our tears. With her hand she helps us rise and accompanies us on the path of hope.”

Two years later, on May 25, 2018, Francis again presided over a liturgy in the presence of the reliquary of the Virgin’s tears. From the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta, the Pontiff stated: “They have brought from Syracuse the relic of the Virgin’s tears. Today they are here, and we pray to the Virgin to give us and also to humanity, because we need it, the gift of tears, so that we can cry for our sins and for so many calamities that make the people of God suffer. the children of God.”

The Marian Sanctuary of Syracuse receives approximately one million pilgrims each year.

The visionary spouses of the miracle of tears. Photo: Santuario della Madonna delle Lacrime.