Santuario della Madonna delle Lacrime or The Basilica of the Madonna (Our Lady of Tears), is a modernistic Roman Catholic Marian shrine church located in Syracuse, Sicily in Italy. The 20th-century church is modeled on the shape of a teardrop to honor the miraculous lacrimation of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
A young married couple named Angelo Lannuso and Antonina Lucia Giusti received a plaster bas-relief of the Virgin Mary as a wedding gift. Allegedly, the Virgin Mary started crying on August 29, 1953, wept for four days, and even cured the complicated pregnancy of Antonina when she witnessed her tears.
The weeping Mary of Syracuse is the only weeping statue recognized by a pope.
Church authorities investigated the phenomenon and determined that the fluid shed by the statue was similar to real human tears, but they had no scientific explanation. In 1968, a shrine was built by French architects Michel Andrault and Pierre Parat following an international competition and was later renovated in 1994.
Santuario della Madonna houses the statue of the weeping Mary.
The modernist nature of the church caused a lot of controversy because of its non-traditional look. The lower floor of the Sanctuary houses a museum. The conical body of the temple is crowned with a 20-meter-long statue of the Virgin Mary. In total, the church is about 103 meters long and is the highest building in Syracuse.
