Devotees have started to flock to a church in Los Naranjos, Argentina to witness a statue of the Virgin Mary allegedly weeping blood.
The statue, which belonged to a family chapel, purportedly began shedding red "tears" at the start of Lent, according to The Sun. Its owner even said that Mary appeared to him in a dream before her figure "cried blood." At first, he was scared of the tears because he thought it might be a bad omen.
"It was the first time something like this has happened and I was very scared. I thought it was some kind of punishment," he said.
However, he changed his mind after people began seeing it as a miraculous act. The statue has since then been moved to a local Catholic church so that more people can pay homage and pray to it.
"A lot of people come here to pray and light several candles devoted to the Virgin. The first impression is that it is blood on the face of the Virgin, from the left eye," local priest Ricardo Quiroga explained. "Also the dress she is wearing is also totally stained this same red color."
Quiroga added that they are waiting for the statue to weep blood again. "If she cries again, we need to do something at a high level in the church," he said. "Maybe we would need to send her to be evaluated."
For now, Quiroga believes that the Virgin Mary is telling the faithful to change their way of living during this Lenten season. "The Virgin is asking us to change the way we live now for Lent," he said.
This is not the first time a religious figure has displayed lifelike actions. When a painting of the Virgin Mary began shedding tears at the Church of the Holy Archangel Michael near Skopje, Macedonia, people also called it a miracle.
Onlookers even said the Virgin Mary's tear smelled like myrrh, one of the gifts the Three Wise Men were said to have given baby Jesus in the barn.
