Speaker 1: Every river has a source, a point of origin from
Speaker 1: which it all begins. Sometimes it can be large, like
Speaker 1: a glacier or a lake, or sometimes it is formed
Speaker 1: from a tiny babbling spring. Other times, like in the
Speaker 1: case of the River Churchina in Italy, it begins on
Speaker 1: the slope of a mountain, formed over time from what
Speaker 1: starts as just a few drops of rain, landing like
Speaker 1: tears onto rock and earth, sliding down the surface in gentle,
Speaker 1: silent rivulets. Gradually the rivulets converge or collect in pools,
Speaker 1: spilling over, finally as gravity takes hold, and now a
Speaker 1: stream is beginning to gush down the mountain side, ever
Speaker 1: increasing in size and intensity. As more and more streams
Speaker 1: collide into one another, creating pathways in the landscape for
Speaker 1: later rains to follow, and as these pathways converge into one,
Speaker 1: it deepens and grows wider, until from what began as
Speaker 1: only a few drops of rain, an entire river has emerged.
Speaker 1: For the dark, silty waters of the River Churchina, this
Speaker 1: process begins somewhere in the Callina Metallifera, or the metalliferous
Speaker 1: hills in western Tuscany, where two waterways converge in the
Speaker 1: province of Grosseto to form the Churchina. From there it
Speaker 1: meanders gently west through the pale Tuscan countryside all the
Speaker 1: way to the small coastal town of Chechina, the river's namesake,
Speaker 1: in the province of Livuano, where its waters flow out
Speaker 1: into the Lago Urian Sea. And it is from there
Speaker 1: one quiet morning sometime in the late nineteen forties that
Speaker 1: a local sculptor makes his way towards the banks of
Speaker 1: the river to the east of the town and begins
Speaker 1: his working day. In the distance, rolling Tuscan hills as
Speaker 1: steadily reddening under the rising sun, while birds cheap happily
Speaker 1: in the scrub and a light breeze rustles the long grass.
Speaker 1: As the sculptor carefully picks his way toward the river's edge.
Speaker 1: Plunging his hands into the cool waters, he tears a
Speaker 1: thick chunk of clay from its bed and pulls it
Speaker 1: up above the surface. He plays with it in his hand,
Speaker 1: testing it for consistency, watching as the water streams off,
Speaker 1: dripping back into the river in thick, cloudy drops. Satisfied,
Speaker 1: the sculptor, a man named amor Car Santini, set about
Speaker 1: collecting as much sodden clay as he could, shoveling it
Speaker 1: into a bucket before hauling it back to his studio
Speaker 1: later that day. Back in his workshop, Santini begins the
Speaker 1: laborious process of purifying the clay, then dissolving it in
Speaker 1: water and filtering the resultant mixture numerous times through gauze,
Speaker 1: with all impurities removed. What remains it's poured into a vat,
Speaker 1: where it is left for weeks as the clay steadily
Speaker 1: separates from the water. Only then, when the time is right,
Speaker 1: is it ready to be used. At first, Santini doesn't
Speaker 1: quite know how to begin, as he takes a large
Speaker 1: ball of the clay and tries to visualize the gentle
Speaker 1: folds and contours of the shape it must become, when
Speaker 1: suddenly he is struck by a sudden bout of inspiration.
Speaker 1: Taking the clay, he begins to roll it between his palms,
Speaker 1: feeling its damp plasticity as he teases it expertly into
Speaker 1: shape with his fingers. It is a strange feeling that
Speaker 1: has come over him. It's almost as if his hands
Speaker 1: are being guided by some one else. First, he constructs
Speaker 1: the torso before moving on to the arms and finally
Speaker 1: what will be the figure's head begins to emerge on
Speaker 1: He continues over the course of three days until finally
Speaker 1: the piece is finished. As he sits back to admire
Speaker 1: his work, what stands before him is a thirty centimeter
Speaker 1: high bust of Mary, the Virgin Mother of Jesus. Her
Speaker 1: body is clothed in a tunic and robe, while over
Speaker 1: a subtly bowed head sits a shroud, the folds of
Speaker 1: each seeming almost to be in motion, so delicately have
Speaker 1: they been crafted. The figures left hand grasps the opening
Speaker 1: of her tunic, holding it back, while her right rests
Speaker 1: on the striking image of her heart, which protrudes from
Speaker 1: her chest and has a finely carved flame shooting out
Speaker 1: the top of it. The strangely macabre image is known
Speaker 1: as the Immaculate Heart of Mary, an icon of the
Speaker 1: Catholic Faith, with its prominently displayed heart serving as a
Speaker 1: symbol for her undying love for God as it pertains
Speaker 1: to the Catholic Faith and for all humankind. Santini had
Speaker 1: been commissioned to make a version of it for a
Speaker 1: company located in nearby Banyard Luca, who hope to mass
Speaker 1: produce it as a religious effigy for people to hang
Speaker 1: up in their home. It was the first of its
Speaker 1: kind to be made by the well respected sculptor, whose
Speaker 1: work wouldn't ordinarily be affordable for most people. Little did
Speaker 1: anyone know that it would become just about the most
Speaker 1: famous depiction of the Immaculate Heart of Mary ever created.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Unexplained and I'm Richard McClean smith. Once finished,
Speaker 1: Santini's sculpture was sent to a factory in Banyard, Luca,
Speaker 1: where molds were made of it before being promptly added
Speaker 1: to the production line. Over the next few years, hundreds
Speaker 1: of copies of Santini's model were churned out cast from
Speaker 1: a simple mix of plaster before being painted and then
Speaker 1: mounted onto a forty by thirty centimeter block of black
Speaker 1: opaline glass. In early nineteen fifty two, just one such
Speaker 1: model emerged from the production line, no different from any
Speaker 1: of the others that had come before it, with its
Speaker 1: sad forlorn eyes painted sky blue in color to match
Speaker 1: its robe, while its prominent heart was given a striking
Speaker 1: scarlet hue after being coated in varnish and left to dry.
Speaker 1: It along with a number of others, was boxed up
Speaker 1: and shipped out to the ancient terra cotta town of
Speaker 1: Syracusa on the east coast of Sicily. It was sometime
Speaker 1: in October nineteen fifty two that Our Mary of the
Speaker 1: Immaculate Heart was removed from its box by shop keeper
Speaker 1: Salvatore Floresta and placed alongside the thirty or so other
Speaker 1: Marys he'd ordered on a shelf at the back of
Speaker 1: his shop at number twenty eight Corsa Umberto. Salvatore looked
Speaker 1: at his latest items with quiet satisfaction as they stood
Speaker 1: silent and still on the shelf, then turned and headed
Speaker 1: back to the front of the shop and opened up
Speaker 1: for the day. It was roughly six months later, with
Speaker 1: most of the models sold, that a woman came into
Speaker 1: the shop looking for a gift to give a relative
Speaker 1: who was due to get married. Well, what better than
Speaker 1: an effigy of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, suggested Salvatore,
Speaker 1: the shopkeeper, the ultimate symbol of undying love and faith,
Speaker 1: and so Our Mary was finally plucked from the shelf,
Speaker 1: placed inside a paper bag, and taken away. Twenty year
Speaker 1: olds Atonina and Angelo Ianuzzo didn't quite know what to
Speaker 1: make of the thing. Although they'd been polite and courteous
Speaker 1: when they received it at the wedding, in truth, neither
Speaker 1: were especially religious and had little interest in an effigy
Speaker 1: of Mary, not least of all one that was so garish.
Speaker 1: Not having the heart to throw it out, however, they
Speaker 1: eventually decided to hang it above their bed, perhaps hoping
Speaker 1: it might in the very least bring them some good luck.
Speaker 1: The couple were married in late March nineteen fifty three, and,
Speaker 1: with only Angelo working carving out a modest living as
Speaker 1: a laborer, the pair had moved into Angelo's brother's home
Speaker 1: on Via delhi Orti de San Giorgio to live with
Speaker 1: Angelo's brother and his wife. It was only a week
Speaker 1: or so later when Antonina fell pregnant. Perhaps the effigy
Speaker 1: of Mary had brought them good luck after all, they thought,
Speaker 1: as they delighted in the news. Wasn't long, however, before
Speaker 1: Antonina noticed strange things occurring to her body. It started
Speaker 1: with a swelling in her hands and face. Then her
Speaker 1: urine began to darken, going almost slate gray in color.
Speaker 1: At first, she assumed it was a natural side effect
Speaker 1: of the pregnancy, but then the headaches started up steadily.
Speaker 1: They grew worse and worse each time, Antonina feeling that
Speaker 1: she might pass out from the pain, until one day
Speaker 1: she collapsed to the floor. Her husband could only watch
Speaker 1: on in horror as her face twisted into a hideous
Speaker 1: rictus and her body began to shake uncontrollably. Having eventually
Speaker 1: come round, Antonina was finally taken to see a doctor,
Speaker 1: who gave her the terrifying news that she developed toxemia,
Speaker 1: an old fashioned term for what would be described today
Speaker 1: as pre eclampsia, a condition which causes high blood pressure
Speaker 1: during pregnancy and can lead to serious complications if left untreated. Antonina, however,
Speaker 1: had entered the later stage known as eclampsia, and her
Speaker 1: prognosis was not clear, and despite the doctor's best efforts,
Speaker 1: her condition only seemed to worsen steadily over time. If
Speaker 1: the terror of possibly losing her baby wasn't enough, Antonina
Speaker 1: began to go blind. It was three am in the
Speaker 1: morning of Saturday, August twenty ninth when Angelo was woken
Speaker 1: by Antonina's body twitching and convulsing beside him. Realizing she
Speaker 1: was having another seizure, he did his best to keep
Speaker 1: her from hurting herself until the fitting finally abated and
Speaker 1: his wife came round again. But when she looked for
Speaker 1: his face, she saw only darkness. Her sight had now
Speaker 1: completely gone. As the couple wept together through the night,
Speaker 1: Antonina eventually found sleep, while Angelo had no choice but
Speaker 1: to head out for work. It was sometime around eight
Speaker 1: thirty am that Antonina is said to have woken again.
Speaker 1: When she opened her eyes, she thought at first she
Speaker 1: was still dreaming. She could see everything, the bed, the walls,
Speaker 1: the sunlight flooding in through the windows. It was a miracle,
Speaker 1: she thought, as she touched her face, pinching herself to
Speaker 1: know it was real. Then she looked up to the
Speaker 1: effigy hanging on the wall above the back of the bed,
Speaker 1: and into the forlorn eyes of Mary, when she noticed
Speaker 1: something strange. The effigy appeared to be crying. Gratzia, Antonina's
Speaker 1: sister in law, was brought rushing to the room by
Speaker 1: Antonina's astonished cries. Thinking first that Antonina was having another seizure,
Speaker 1: Gratzia was astonished to find her standing at the head
Speaker 1: of the bed. Look, she said to the bemused Gratzia
Speaker 1: as she pointed to the statue. Do you see it?
Speaker 1: It's crying. Gratzia looked with startled pity at Antonina, thinking
Speaker 1: she was clearly hallucinating, but when she tried to help
Speaker 1: her into bed, Antonina pulled back. She was cured, she said,
Speaker 1: pointing to her eyes she could see. Then Antonina turned
Speaker 1: back to the effigy on the wall. Gratzia followed her
Speaker 1: concentrated gaze, screwing her face up in bewilderment as she
Speaker 1: tried to comprehend what she was looking at. The effigy
Speaker 1: was covered in small rivulets of water that were dripping
Speaker 1: steadily on to the headboard of the bed below, and
Speaker 1: as far as Gratzia could make out, the liquid was
Speaker 1: coming from Mary's eyes. Completely dumbfounded, Antonina and Gratzia, along
Speaker 1: with Angelo's aunt who was staying with them too, grabbed
Speaker 1: the effigy from the wall and ran immediately into the
Speaker 1: street as they showed it to their neighbors and anyone
Speaker 1: who was passing by. One by one, the plaque was
Speaker 1: taken and stared at in disbelief. The eyes dabbed and
Speaker 1: the material examined for any sign of water see pitch,
Speaker 1: but nothing was found, and yet the tears continued to fall,
Speaker 1: with many neighbors, aware of Antonina's recent health struggles to
Speaker 1: see her then standing before them positively glowing. It was
Speaker 1: clear to them all that a genuine miracle was taking
Speaker 1: place right in front of their eyes. Before long, talk
Speaker 1: of the weeping Madonna had extended far beyond the Ianusom
Speaker 1: home as words traveled quickly, first through the neighborhood and
Speaker 1: then out into the wider town, and soon a large
Speaker 1: crowd had formed outside Antonina and Angelo's home as people
Speaker 1: from all over Syracusa demanded to see the effigy for themselves.
Speaker 1: Having been alerted to the developing incident, the police promptly
Speaker 1: arrived to disperse the crowd, only to find themselves being
Speaker 1: swept up in the moment too, when the effigy was
Speaker 1: brought out to them, still crying apparent tears from its eyes,
Speaker 1: But as the crowd in the street continued to grow,
Speaker 1: the police had no choice but to confiscate the item
Speaker 1: and take it back to the station for a closer look.
Speaker 1: By the time they'd arrived there, however, the crying had stopped.
Speaker 1: That night, with the crowd almost all but gone. The
Speaker 1: police returned to the Iannuso home, sorry to say that
Speaker 1: whatever it was that had taken place had now finished.
Speaker 1: Then they handed what was by then a completely dry
Speaker 1: statue back to Antonina and Angelo, with a few people
Speaker 1: from the earlier crowd choosing to remain outside the house.
Speaker 1: Despite the apparent miracle having come to an end, the
Speaker 1: Iannusos decided to leave the statue on a table outside
Speaker 1: should anyone else turn up, hoping to see it. By
Speaker 1: the following morning, it was weeping again. On the second day, Sunday,
Speaker 1: August thirtieth, the Archbishop of Syracusa, Attore Baroncini, traveled to
Speaker 1: the Yanuso home, where he too claimed to witness the weeping.
Speaker 1: So stunned by what he'd seen, he rushed back immediately
Speaker 1: to his official residence and began organizing a scientific commission
Speaker 1: to have the object formally analyzed. All the while, word
Speaker 1: of the miracle in Syracusa continued to spread as hundreds
Speaker 1: descended once more to Antonina and Angelo's home. The couple
Speaker 1: decided eventually to simply nail the effigy to their front
Speaker 1: door so all could see it and touch it if
Speaker 1: they so wished. Many even brought pieces of cloth and
Speaker 1: wads of cotton in an effort to harvest the tears
Speaker 1: to keep for themselves. Others came simply to pray, like
Speaker 1: Pietro Sebastiano, who, on seeing the liquid emerge from the
Speaker 1: statue's eyes, burst immediately into tears of his own. Feeling
Speaker 1: suddenly ashamed for crying so openly in public, he then
Speaker 1: turned round to find that everyone else there, too, was crying.
Speaker 1: It was early on Monday, September first that Archbishop Baroncini's
Speaker 1: commission arrived at the ian Usou property. The group of
Speaker 1: seven men, comprised of four scientists and three trusted colleagues
Speaker 1: of Baroncini's, was led by doctor Michel Cassola. Cassola was
Speaker 1: an avowed atheist and had been chosen by Baroncini for
Speaker 1: that precise reason. After being led through to the living
Speaker 1: room where the effigy was then being kept, Cassola couldn't
Speaker 1: help but feel a little unnerved by the humble looking object,
Speaker 1: this strange and passive thing, no different from many similar
Speaker 1: objects he'd seen hung up in people's homes over the years,
Speaker 1: quite clearly emitting some kind of inexplicable liquid. He brushed
Speaker 1: at its eyes with his thumb, then rubbed the wetness
Speaker 1: between his fingers. Then, taking a sterilized prepete from his bag,
Speaker 1: he proceeded to take a sample of it. Turning their
Speaker 1: attention to the object itself, the team carefully removed the
Speaker 1: bust from its plaque and examined it closely for any
Speaker 1: sign of a crack or evidence that it was simply
Speaker 1: leaking from insight, but they found nothing. Having got everything
Speaker 1: they needed, the team screwed the effigy back together, then
Speaker 1: handed it back to Antonina and Angelo, and left a
Speaker 1: short time later that morning, at roughly eleven forty am,
Speaker 1: the crying ceased, never to occur again. Madonna de la Lachrymae,
Speaker 1: or our Lady of the Tears, as the peculiar object
Speaker 1: would come to be known, was said to have wept
Speaker 1: on fifty eight separate occasions over a total of four
Speaker 1: days before it stopped. This apparent weeping was also filmed
Speaker 1: by a local cinematographer, the footage of which can be
Speaker 1: seen on YouTube. For some, with the crying having finished,
Speaker 1: the miracle was now over. For many others, however, it
Speaker 1: was only just beginning. On the afternoon of Saturday, September fifth,
Speaker 1: a young girl called Enza Moncada, who had suffered from
Speaker 1: the paralysis of her right arm since she was a baby,
Speaker 1: was said to have been brought from her home to
Speaker 1: kneel before the effigy in the hope that it might
Speaker 1: cure her. As she was led through, the crowd, which
Speaker 1: had remained as large as ever, many began to pray
Speaker 1: for her. While the young Enza stirred underneath the plaque.
Speaker 1: A piece of cotton was brought forward, still apparently damped
Speaker 1: from the idol's tears collected almost a week before, and
Speaker 1: applied to her right arm. As the crowd watched on,
Speaker 1: some began to chant Long Live Mary, Long Live Mary.
Speaker 1: When suddenly the young girl's arm began to twitch, drawing
Speaker 1: gasps from everyone around, and then it was rising higher
Speaker 1: and higher into the air. Enza's mother burst into tears
Speaker 1: as her daughter stood before her, gleefully waving her once
Speaker 1: paralyzed arm high above her head. It was four days
Speaker 1: later when doctor Michel Cassola published his team's findings. According
Speaker 1: to them, incredibly, the liquid taken from the effigy was
Speaker 1: found to be comprised of a watery solution of sodium
Speaker 1: chlorite with traces of protein, just like human secretions. The
Speaker 1: liquid was then put through a series of chemical reactions,
Speaker 1: the results of which were found to mirror almost identically
Speaker 1: the results of similar tests conducted with human tears. As
Speaker 1: a direct result of these startling revelations, priests all over
Speaker 1: Italy reported a huge surge in members of their congregation
Speaker 1: visiting their confession boxes, only spurred on by the now
Speaker 1: seemingly verified miracle. Doctor Cassola's team also examined around two
Speaker 1: hundred and ninety reports of inexplicable healing, such as that
Speaker 1: apparently experienced by the young girl Endza Moncada. Though most
Speaker 1: were dismissed, as many as one hundred and five are
Speaker 1: said to have been considered of special interest to the church.
Speaker 1: With the release of the commission's findings, the seemingly miraculous
Speaker 1: effigy had forever been transformed from what was once a
Speaker 1: humble wedding gift to a deeply venerated icon of immense
Speaker 1: religious significance. As such, it had effectively ceased to be
Speaker 1: the private property of Antonina and Angelo Ianuso, after agreeing
Speaker 1: with the Church to have it removed from their home.
Speaker 1: A vast crowd followed as it was taken from their
Speaker 1: door and led through the streets into nearby Piazza Euripide,
Speaker 1: where it was set to remain indefinitely. Watching on as
Speaker 1: it was installed at the edge of the square, Archbishop
Speaker 1: Baronzini addressed the crowd solemnly remarking that the effigies tears
Speaker 1: were not only indelible proof of God, but also a
Speaker 1: symbol of all the suffering that remained in the world.
Speaker 1: In December, at Sicily's annual Bishop's Conference, it was unanimously
Speaker 1: agreed that, on account of the findings of Baronzini's scientific commission,
Speaker 1: the miracle had been real. A few days later, on
Speaker 1: what for many is Christmas Day, with Antonina Ianuso having
Speaker 1: by then completely overcome her illness, she and Angelo welcomed
Speaker 1: their first child into the world, Mariano. The couple would
Speaker 1: go on to have three more healthy children. The following year,
Speaker 1: the Vatican confirmed the findings of the bishop's conference, with
Speaker 1: Pope Pious the twelfth also declaring the miracle to have
Speaker 1: been real. The Ianuso effigy remains the only article of
Speaker 1: its kind to be formally recognized by the Roman Catholic church,
Speaker 1: and as its mythical status continued to grow over the years,
Speaker 1: it was eventually decided to build it a sanctuary of
Speaker 1: its own. The Basilica Sanctuario Madonna de la Lacromae in
Speaker 1: Syracusa was formerly opened by Pope John Pauled the second
Speaker 1: in November nineteen ninety four, and you can visit the
Speaker 1: object to this day where it is displayed along with
Speaker 1: the reliquary that is said to hold a vial of
Speaker 1: its tears, as well as a number of tear soaked cloths.
Speaker 1: If you enjoy Unexplained and would like to help support us,
Speaker 1: you can now do so via Patroon. To receive access
Speaker 1: to add free episodes, just go to patron dot com
Speaker 1: forward Slash Unexplained pod to sign up Unexplained. The book
Speaker 1: and audiobook, featuring ten stories that have never before been
Speaker 1: covered on the show, is now available to buy worldwide.
Speaker 1: You can purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Waterstones,
Speaker 1: among other bookstores. All elements have Unexplained, including the show's music,
Speaker 1: are produced by me Richard McClane smith. Please subscribe and
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Speaker 1: free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas
Speaker 1: regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you
Speaker 1: have an explanation of your own you'd like to share.
Speaker 1: You can reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com
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