ALLEGED MIRACLE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19505, 13 June 1925, Page 8

ALLEGED MIRACLE.

STRANGE CASE IN ITALY. EMANATIONS OF BLOOD. SCIENTIFIC MEN PUZZLED. A curious case of religious traumatism has been manifested in Montalto U2ugo, a small place in Calabria, Italy, where a young woman Elena Ajelk>. is is asserted, sweats blood every Friday in March and April, and especially in Good Friday. The phenomenon, it is declared, has been reproduced with increasing intensity during the past thiee years, and last year it attracted more than 10,000 persons to witness the extraordinary manifestation, Elena Ajello is an invalid, permanently confined to bed, and physicians are inclined to consider her case as one of unusual religious hysteria, while unscientific people regard it ns a miraculous affair. The place is 16 miles from Cosenza, and this year the Prefect of the province, Dt Guerreri, himsoif an eminent physician, with several university prolessors, among whom was Professor Vincenzo Bianchi, of the University of Naples, and the entire medical staff of the principal hospital at __ Cosenza, wished to be present at the alleged miraculous manifestation The party drove in motor cars to Montalto on Good Friday. They found the town swarming with thousands of people of all classes, who had come in wagons, motors and donkey carts, or on foot. The principal square was crowded with thousands of people, the street where the house of the alleged saint is situated was swarming with believers in the miracle, and by 12 o’clock it was hopeless to try to approach the premises. The trance of Elena Ajello began at 12 o’clock, when she sighed and was plunged in a pious vision. Entirely unconscious of the people around her, she went through all the story of the Passion of Christ. _ At 3 o’clock she complained of great pain m her hands and feet, as though they had been pierced by nails, as when Christ was nailed to the cross. Finally she uttered an agonising cry that the crown of thorns was piercing her head. At that moment blood oozed from her forehead, from her knees, and f r j> m her feet, and she continued sweating blood *, n astonishing abundance, chiefly from her heaci, for more than three hours. REMARKS BY SCIENTISTS. The scientific and medical observers present, when questioned afterwards, declared that the case deified ordinary pathoiogicai data, and could be explained only on the assumption of a material effect from pnysical causes. Professor Bianchi, of Naples, intends to write a booklet on the subject considered from the scientific point of view. Elena Ajello is about 2S years of ago and is the daughter of a tailor. At the age of 18 she desired to enter a convent, and took the veil of a novice with the nuns of the Congregation of the Precious Blood of Nocora Pagani, but having shown persistent infirmity, was not allowed to take her vows, and was sent back to her father. The young woman has been an invalid ever since her return home .five years ago, and has constantly been absorbed in religious contemplation. At the age of 12 she had what were considered to be epileptic attacks, which lasted some 10 months and then disappeared. People in Calabria have come to regard her as a saint, and on Good ±nday thousands were on their knees praying while the alleged miracle was produced.