Statue of St. Therese in Baguio wept blood?

BAGUIO CITY — The faithful and the curious have been flocking to the Baguio Cathedral after word spread that a churchgoer saw the statue of St. Therese weeping what appeared to be blood last Monday afternoon.

"This is the first time that something like this happened in the cathedral," said Fr. Vicente Castro, 66, the diocesan parish priest, adding that he has to consult a doctor if it was really blood.

"What was spine-tingling was that even the Baby Jesus which St. Therese cuddles was almost splattered with blood," he said.

Church helper Denver Fernandez, 26, recounted that at about 4:30 p.m. last Monday, a man in his 20s informed him that he saw the two-foot tall, cement-cast statue of St. Therese weeping blood.

When he went to check it, Fernandez, who has served in the cathedral for over a year, said he was astonished to find blood oozing from the statue’s eyes and flowing down to its feet.

"We wiped it with a tissue paper and it really looked like it was blood," he said.

Fernandez quoted the unidentified man as saying that he had dreamt about the statue of St. Therese weeping blood a week ago.

The church helper said he again saw the man intently praying in front of the statue at about 6 a.m. yesterday.

A decade ago, a similar incident happened in Barangay Loakan here. A statue of the Virgin Mary was said to have wept blood. Castro, however, said it later turned out to be a hoax.