Our Lady of Civitavecchia and the Bleeding Statue

This is a marvelous story about a bleeding statue and Mary's apparitions to a pious Italian family as recently as 1995. The story of the supernatural happenings is not well known in America as all the books about it are in Italian or Spanish. Early on, the bishop of the diocese wanted the little statue destroyed thinking it was all a hoax but when the statue bled in his hands he turned from skeptic to believer. Pope John Paul II was devoted to the bleeding statue and reportedly visited the Gregori family in secret to see the statue and had the statue brought to him in the Vatican where he placed a crown and rosary on it. He gave the family an identical statue that miraculously cries tears smelling of flowers while the statue that cried blood is enshrined in family's church in Pantano, a small hamlet near Civitavecchia. The bishop of the diocese following the findings from a Commission he established declared the statue that bled tears of blood was supernatural and believable.