A self-proclaimed mystic who told hundreds of devotees in Italy that her statue of the Virgin Mary shed tears of blood and could miraculously multiply plates of pizza has been declared a fraud by the Catholic Church.
A commission of Church-appointed experts told Gisella Cardia, 54, to stop gathering her followers every month in Trevignano, in central Italy, where she would go into a trance and write down messages the statue passed on to her.
