The miracles of the Madonna delle Lacrime of Syracuse

From a scientific point of view, the phenomenon of Tearing was confirmed by chemical analyzes carried out on some tears taken by a specialized commission, directly on the plaster board on September 1, 1953. The results were clear: it was human tears!

Of course, the wonderful gift of the tearing of the Madonnina in Syracuse was an event that brought fruit of conversion.

Tangible stimuli that gave fruit to the conversion of many were the many miracles performed through the intercession of the Immaculate and Sorrowful Heart of Mary.

In this section we wish to report only some of the testimonies of the time, taken from a document of November 1953 also bearing the ecclesiastical approval of Can. Salvatore Cilia, then Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Syracuse.

We are sure that the voice of those who shouted at the miracle at the time of the facts cannot be clouded by any doubts that the elapsed time may give rise to in the mind of the unbeliever.

The first to be healed was Antonina Giusto Iannuso, owner of the plaster picture and first person who noticed the presence of tears; she had no more problems neither with the current pregnancy nor with the subsequent ones.

The little Syracusan Aliffi Salvatore, almost two years old, had been diagnosed with a rectal neoplasm, after the parents, now desperate, had turned to the intercession of Mary, the child no longer complained of disturbances.

The three-year-old little Syracusan Moncada Enza, from the age of one, suffered from paralysis in her right arm; after the blessed cotton was applied in front of the picture he started to move his arm.

The 38-year-old Siracusan Ferracani Caterina, struck by a brain thrombosis, was paralyzed and silent. Upon returning from a visit to the Madonnina and after applying the blessed cotton, he regained his voice.

The 38-year-old from Trapani, Tranchida Bernardo, was paralyzed after an accident at work. One day, he was hospitalized in Livorno, while a woman and a man talked about the events of Syracuse he was in and passing by. The man engaged in the discussion was skeptical and said he would believe miracles if he saw the paralytic walking past them. The woman then offered the Tranchida a piece of blessed cotton. In the afternoon the Tranchida telegraphed home saying he was completely healed. The story also echoed in the Corriere della Sera in Milan. The Tranchida later came to Syracuse to honor Maria.

Francopontese Anna Gaudioso Vassallo, who testified together with her medical husband, that she was now resigned to her end due to a malignant tumor in the rectum, a consequence of the metastasis of a tumor removed to the uterus. Sent home without hope by professors luminaries, she decided to go to pray at the foot of the miraculous picture and the husband, in his hopeful prayer, applied to his wife a piece of cotton blessed on the sick spot. On the night of September 30th Ms. Ra Anna felt as if a hand was taking off the patch and in the morning she found it detached. Undecided whether to put it back, she listened to her 5-year-old granddaughter who told her not to do it because the Madonnina had spoken to her little heart saying she had performed a miracle on her aunt. Numerous subsequent medical examinations noted the total recovery of the lady from evil.

These testimonies, together with the hundreds of scientifically defined inexplicable miracles of the time, must be for us a concrete example of the love that God has for his children, especially those who suffer.