The Vatican is cracking down on ‘mystics’ who claim they can communicate with the Virgin Mary, after a woman has amounted hundreds of followers with claims that the Madonna has been making free pizza.
Gisella Cardia, 53, has drawn huge crowds to her monthly trances on a hill top in Trevignano near Rome, where she stands in front of a statue of the Madonna that she claims sheds tears of blood.
The Sicilian claims she can hear the mother of Jesus Christ and writes down the revelations during a trance, before reading them out to gathered crowds.
Cardia, who has a conviction for fraudulent bankruptcy, was watched by around 250 devotees during her latest trance according to The Times.
Now the papacy has set up a task force to tackle the rising number of mystics who claim they can speak with Mary, and says Cardia’s credentials will be looked into.
Gisella Cardia, 53, has drawn huge crowds to her monthly trances on a hill top in Trevignano near Rome
The mystic’s Madonna figure came from Medjugorje in Bosnia, which has been a pilgrimage site since six children claimed to have seen visions of Mary there in 1981
Sister Daniela del Gaudio, the head of the Vatican task force, said the group itself would not specifically study Cardia, leaving that to a commission set up by a local bishop.
Among the mystic’s claims was that she witnessed the unfathomable multiplication of pizza and gnocchi portions prepared for her followers – harking back to the biblical story of the feeding of the 5,000.
Sister del Gaudio dismissed the claim saying: ‘When the saints multiplied food it was for a real need during times of hunger and above all they did it with great humility’.
Cardia has hit back at her critics, saying: ‘They have accused me of everything: blasphemy, heresy, even prostitution.’
She has been ordered by the local mayor to remove a marquee and benches for her audience, placed on the hill without permission, as well as her statue of the Madonna.
The mystic defiantly proclaimed: ‘I have never fled and I intend to stay right here.’
More people attend Cardia’s events than do mass in the local church, residents in Trevignano claimed.
The Pope has cast doubt on supposed apparitions in recent years, saying events like that in Medjugorje ‘do not have much value’
Her Madonna figure came from Medjugorje in Bosnia, which has been a pilgrimage site since six children claimed to have seen visions of Mary there in 1981.
Worshippers gather at the site where Cardia experiences trances and claims to communicate with the Virgin Mary
The ‘mystic’ has been ordered by the local mayor to remove a marquee and benches for her audience, placed on the hill without permission
More people attend Cardia’s events than do mass in the local church, residents in Trevignano claimed
Madonna statues have also been claimed to have cried blood before, with instances of the bizarre phenomenon allegedly happening in Civitivecchia, north of Rome and Argentina.
The Pope has cast doubt on supposed apparitions in recent years, saying events like that in Medjugorje ‘do not have much value’.
While the Catholic church is keen to encourage worship of the Virgin Mary, it is increasingly worried about fraudsters and wants to help believers who can ‘easily be fooled’.
The task force is being set up by the Vatican’s Mariana Internationalis pontifical academy, run by Italian priest Stefano Cecchin.
He said something needs to be done about the rise of Madonna mystics as they ’cause confusion, promote apocalyptic scenarios and even make accusations against the Pope and the church’.