An Italian woman who drew hundreds of pilgrims to worship at a statue of the Virgin Mary who she claimed wept tears of blood is being investigated for fraud.

Gisella Cardia bought the statue in 2016 at the Catholic pilgrimage site of Medjugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She transported it to Trevignano Romano a town near Rome where it became the centrepiece of a pilgrimage site after it was claimed the Madonna was weeping tears of blood.

However, a fraud investigation was opened in 2023 after a private investigator claimed the blood on the statue, which at the time was placed in a glass case, had come from a pig.

Cardia who is a self-styled mystic, also claimed the statue was transmitting messages to her, but she was declared a fraud by the Roman Catholic Church last year.

Now, a DNA test has indicated that the statue’s blood is actually hers and the result is expected to be handed to prosecutors on 28 February.

Cardia’s lawyer, Solange Marchignoli, suggested that the presence of Cardia’s DNA did not rule out a supernatural phenomena and said the traces of DNA could be the result of her kissing and handling the statue. She added: “I don’t know where she’s currently praying, but I know for a fact that she is moved by a deep faith and has nothing to gain from this.”

Cardia, who has a previous conviction for bankruptcy fraud, had set up a foundation to collect pilgrims’ donations that she said would go towards setting up a centre for sick children.

Last May the Vatican ruled that only the Pope could decide what constitutes a supernatural event.