‘The Saint’ leaves Italian town after case opened into statue’s ‘tears of blood’

Maria Giuseppe Scarpulla investigated after claim blood stains on statue of Virgin Mary come from a pig

A woman nicknamed “the Saint” has mysteriously vanished from a small lakeside town near Rome where pilgrims have flocked for years to pray before a statue of the Virgin Mary that she claimed shed tears of blood.

Maria Giuseppe Scarpulla, originally from Sicily, and her husband reportedly fled Trevignano Romano last week after a private investigator triggered a judicial investigation against her based on his alleged finding that the blood stains on the statue came from a pig.