Rome
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A self-styled clairvoyant who stated a statue of the Virgin Mary cried tears of blood and claimed she could multiply gnocchi for her followers, has been charged with fraud, alongside with her husband. They are resulting from stand trial in April.
For years, trustworthy Catholic pilgrims flocked to a area outdoors Rome, belonging to Gisella Cardia – born Maria Giuseppa Scarpulla – and her husband Gianni Cardia, to hope in entrance of the statue of the Madonna of Trevignano. The statue was stated to weep blood and transmit messages Gisella Cardia claimed had been each from God and Satan, in line with court docket paperwork.
The couple, who’ve been denounced by the Vatican, created a shrine to the Madonna statuette and usually held prayer occasions, throughout which Gisella Cardia would take to the stage and preach.
Her followers have informed media that, though Gisella Cardia didn’t multiply bread and loaves, she would usually present up with one field of pizza or a plate of gnocchi that in some way multiplied to feed the lots.
The couple additionally collected almost €400,000 ($465,000) between 2018 and 2024 from those that got here to hope in entrance of the statue, promising that the cash would go to kids’s hospital, the prosecutor’s workplace in Civitavecchia, which has charged them with fraud, confirmed to NCS Thursday.
The prosecutor’s workplace has alleged that the cash was used to spruce up the pilgrimage website and for a $40,000 automobile, and was not taxed in accordance with spiritual donations.
The couple, who will face trial in April, are accused of staging “apparitions” to make it appear that blood was flowing from the Madonna statue’s eyes for cash.
The alleged rip-off got here to gentle in 2023 after a former follower contacted police. In an interview with state broadcaster RAI, he stated he informed officers that he’d discovered a coffin in his automobile following an alleged confrontation with Gisella Cardia.
Police launched an investigation, testing the blood which turned out to match Gisella Cardia’s DNA, geneticist Emiliano Giardina of the general public prosecutor’s workplace in Civitavecchia stated in a court docket report.
At that point, the Vatican launched an announcement warning pilgrims to be cautious of “the alleged apparitions and revelations reported by Mrs. Gisella Cardia… and by Mr. Gianni Cardia,” which it stated had been judged to be not supernatural.
The couple’s lawyer Solange Marchignoli informed NCS Thursday: “(Gisella) Cardia is relieved, as she believes this moment represents an opportunity to transparently reveal the truth of the facts and to definitively put an end to all forms of speculation, misunderstanding, and controversy that have, despite herself, involved her in recent months.” Marchignoli added that the couple “welcomed the trial and said it would be a necessary step to finally clarify, in the appropriate venues, every aspect of the case involving her.”
One girl informed a neighborhood information channel in an interview later broadcast by RAI that she witnessed Gisella Cardia multiplying pizza.
“We were at her house for a rosary, and there were about 20 or 25 of us. After the rosary, we decided to stay there for a while to talk. At one point, someone brought a box of pizza. A person near us cut it and each of us went over there and took a little piece at a time… We all ate it. The pizza was never ending and this is all the work of Divine Providence through Gisella,” the girl stated.
Gisella Cardia herself additionally recounted an identical occasion in an interview with La Repubblica newspaper when allegations of into fraud first surfaced in 2023.
“There was lunch left over, consisting of gnocchi and a bit of rabbit,” she stated. “Everyone ate the gnocchi and rabbit, 15 people, and it’s incredible. While I was dishing out the gnocchi, the food didn’t get any smaller, nor did the pot.”