Sacred relics are the object of worship of believers, therefore it is believed that they accumulate a special blessed energy. But sometimes images or statues of saints even become a source of new mysteries that plunge scientists into a stupor.
Bleeding and crying icons and statues
For a long time, such a phenomenon has been known as the outflow of a red substance, similar to blood, from statues and images of saints. In ancient sources, you can find many references to similar cases of crying idols, icons and other images. So, it is known that in Libetra, before the start of the campaign of Alexander the Great, the statue of Orpheus began to sweat. In 1527, a statue of Christ cried violently in Rome. There were even special monks assigned to it, who constantly wiped the face of the statue. It can be considered that all this is fantasy and inventions, however, similar cases of crying from time to time occur in our days.
The most famous case is the bleeding of icons at Templemore, Ireland, in 1920. It was a turbulent time when terrorism was rampant in the country and it was dangerous to walk the streets. In August, all the icons began to bleed in the house of a certain Thomas Dwan. This news immediately spread throughout the area and pilgrims reached the house. Soon, enterprising businessmen organized a special tour for pilgrims who came from all over the world to see and bow to the miracle. In just a month, while the images of the saints were bleeding, Templemore was visited by over a million people. A month later, the bleeding gradually stopped, but scientists still cannot give an adequate explanation for the phenomenon.
Another case is also known. Allen Demetrius, an American businessman, had a bronze statue of a Japanese girl. On August 6, 1945, at the moment when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, this statue began to "cry". Demetrius saw tears streaming down the bronze girl's face. In 1969, he presented the statue to his daughter, who later also witnessed her crying. What caused this phenomenon is also unknown.
In August 1953, in Syracuse, a Madonna figurine presented to Antonietta Iannuso for a wedding began to cry. A huge number of people witnessed this event. The figurine was repeatedly unscrewed from the base, checked from all sides, but the reasons for crying were never found. Subsequently, Madonna was placed near the railway depot under glass. A procession of 30 thousand people went to see her there, many of whom also became convinced of the miraculousness of the statuette - after touching it, people stopped pain, old diseases and injuries passed away. For several years this miraculous figurine was visited by many thousands of pilgrims, among whom were 3 cardinals and about a hundred bishops and archbishops.
Similar cases are not rare in Orthodoxy, and some of them occur at the present time. So, in 2001, the image of the Valaam Mother of God began to bleed in the Holy Trinity Monastery in the Voronezh Region. The case was officially recorded, and the secreted fluid was sent for examination. It turned out that this is real human blood.
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There are also cases of myrrh streaming - in this case, the image or statue of the saint "weeps" not with blood, but with oil - a special oil made from oil plants and has a pleasant smell. This oil, or myrrh, is used in religious rites, and it is this oil that sometimes appears on the faces of saints. Along with a large number of fake events that are specially adjusted, there are cases of myrrh streaming, the authenticity of which is officially registered. In this case, the icon does not stop flowing myrrh if it is moved to another place, and the flow of oil itself does not depend on time and place.
To explain such cases, commissions are created, which include both scientists and representatives of religion. Representatives of official science are inclined to believe that all these anomalies can have a very common explanation. For example, cases of bleeding may be cleverly faked, or the reddish resin secreted from the tree depicting the face is mistaken for blood. In cases of myrrh streaming, scientists offer several versions. According to one of them, oil is released as a result of preliminary condensation from the air saturated with oil used in rituals. Oil can also get on the icon as a result of the contact of believers with its surface.
Skeptics believe that the effects of bleeding and myrrh leakage have a simple explanation and represent fakes. But, nevertheless, images of saints from time to time begin to "cry" in different parts of the planet, and there is no explanation for this. Perhaps we should take this phenomenon more seriously and try to understand what this sign from above means. For believers, however, this is always an undoubted sign, meaning the approach of any events, formidable, or good.