A phenomenon whereby a statue made of stone, terra cotta, or plaster suddenly appears to weep real tears or even blood from its eyes. Many weeping statues of the Virgin Mary have, on closer inspection, turned out to be fakes. The only recent weeping Madonna to be recognized by the Roman Catholic Church is that in Syracuse, Sicily, validated in 1953. There were many eyewitnesses and a couple of amateur films were made showing tears appearing on the face.
Dr. Luigi Garlaschelli, a chemistry researcher at the University of Pavia, described in Chemistry Today one way to make a “bleeding” or “weeping” statue. “What is needed is a hollow statue made of porous material, such as plaster or ceramic,” he wrote. “The icon must be glazed or painted with some sort of impermeable coating. If the statue is then filled with a liquid (for instance through a tiny hole in the head), the porous material will absorb it by capillary action, but the glazing will stop it from flowing out. If the glazing, however, is imperceptibly scratched away on or around the eyes, tear-like drops will leak out, as if materializing from thin air. If the cavity behind the eyes is small enough, once all the liquid has dripped out there are virtually no traces left in the icon. When 1 put it to the test, this trick proved to be very satisfactory, baffling all onlookers.”