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.
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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.
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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](http://i0.wp.com/themindcircle.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Santuario-della-Madonna-3.jpg)
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.
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![Santuario della Madonna](http://i0.wp.com/themindcircle.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Santuario-della-Madonna-5.jpg)
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