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The Reliquary
The reliquary is the heart of the Shrine because it contains the indisputable evidence of the event: The tears of Mary.
The author and artist is Prof. Biagio Poidimani of Syracuse, professor at the Academy of Beautiful Arts of Rome.
The reliquary has an octagonal base upon which are three distinct levels.
The first level contains part of a cloth which covered the plaque and which was completely soaked with tears, half of a handkerchief which was soaked with the tears, some cotton wool or cotton balls which were soaked with the tears and the phial in which the tears were gathered when the Scientific Commission took the sample (about 30 drops) for analysis on 1 September 1953. |
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At the corners are four statues: St. Lucy, the patroness of the city of Syracuse; St. Martian, the first Bishop of the city; and Ss. Peter and Paul, supporting columns of the Church, linked to the history of the first Christian community in Syracuse.
Paul, because according to the Acts of the Apostles (Ch. 28) he remained in Syracuse for three days; Peter, because according to tradition, when he was Bishop of Antioch, he sent his disciple Martian as the first Bishop of the city of Syracuse. |
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The second level is composed of four panels recalling the wondrous event: A reproduction of the wondrous plaque, the plaque weeping in the Iannuso home, the plaque exposed to the public in Via degli Orti St., the plaque in Euripide Plaza, where it remained for 15 years until the Crypt of the Shrine was built. |
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The third level consists of a glass urn which holds the phial in which the now crystallized tears, which underwent chemical analysis, are kept. |
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On 8 May 1954, the reliquary was sealed and the parchment was signed attesting to its authenticity.
Upon the base of the reliquary inscribed in Latin are the words: “O Virgin of the Tears, tear from the hardness of our hearts tears of repentance – 29 August 1953.” |
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