Bleeding Virgin Mary statue attracts crowds in Baton Rouge

NewImage "One way to think about it is to see how this is real for those who devote themselves to Mary, and what that means to them as a kind of prayerful way to contemplate the role of Mary in their lives, or Jesus in their lives. And, for many people, it's empowering and it's a way to return to a devotion." -- LSU religious studies professor.
Dozens gather to pray at Mother Mary statue they say is bleeding (Via Christian Nightmares)

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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spacemunky

Only the blindly devout and superstitious would believe that statue is a virgin.
- http://www.twitter.com/eselqueso eselqueso
  
  As Memama would say, “Full of grace! Full of grace!”
chellberty

Thank god, Glad Someone called the police she is obviously the victim of abuse. looking at you skyfairy I think you need to come down to the station. Is that raspberry or cherry filling?
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=521240745 Ryan Griffin

somehow I think that blood will taste like berry flavored birdshit.
- Roy Irby
  
  Yep. My Grandfather called them “poke-berries”. When the berries were in season, you would think a bloody tampon had hit your windshield every time a bird shit hit. (Just watched God Bless America, hence the tampon reference).
  - blueelm
    
    Oh pokeberries. They look soooo good, but even the birds appear to shit blood when they eat them.
    
    Poke is a really fascinating plant.
- Phil Fot
  
  That was my first thought.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Zeno-Ferox/699390851 Zeno Ferox

One of the local birds has bleeding hemorrhoids, that’s all.
http://twitter.com/JonnyMiskatonic JohnnyMiskatonic

Having seen that picture, I am reminded that Mary was indeed a white lady with brownish hair.
- millie fink
  
  Ha!
  
  (Just had to respond with more than a “Like.”)
  
  Black Jesus!
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtWf-zlSZvM&feature=relmfu
Daneel

Better than this stupid ‘Virgin Mary in a Tree’, at any rate.

http://www.kcci.com/news/national/Faithful-spot-Virgin-Mary-in-tree/-/9357144/15529498/-/y6akjdz/-/index.html?absolute=true
Humancentric

I’m so glad I left that backwards city for NYC.
soylent_plaid

*sigh* Say it with me now:

“Someone is swabbing the statue with fake blood when people aren’t looking.”

I honestly wouldn’t care about stuff like this – as John Lennon said, “Whatever gets you through the night” – but you know that somebody is going to try and use this to fleece the gullible.
- kiptw
  
  It’s a miracle! God be praised! Gimme money!!
Mitchell Glaser

That’s a nice hat she’s wearing. Gives her a kind of Wonder Woman look. How appropriate.
http://twitter.com/chrisjimson chris jimson

OK, how many here saw the title and for a split second thought it said “attacks” not “attracts”?

Now THAT would make for a good story. AND a good movie.
- Cowicide
  
  I would submit to any religion that could command statues to attack.
  - Sagodjur
    
    ”Don’t Blink. Blink and you’re dead. Don’t turn your back. Don’t look away. And don’t Blink.”
  - spacemunky
    
    I could interest you in a nice golem, maybe?
Guido

I hope that they don’t try to get the person who debunks this in jail, as the Chruch is trying to jail Sanal Edamaruku
ymr049c

How is this even supposed to make sense in the Christian mythology? Why would Mary’s head bleed? There are no stories I know of her wearing thorns, or suffering a head blow, or whatever.

I guess my expectation that something like this should have a coherent thread with the rest of the religion is part of why I don’t get the religion in the first place.
- redfood
  
  Thats exactly what I was thinking… I doesn’t even make sense if you are a believer.
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000335676462 Mona Tara Morgan
  
  Maybe gawd knocked her out before he knocked her up?
  - Wreckrob8
    
    (The immaculate) date rape?
Antinous / Moderator

“Mother Mary”? The person who wrote that article must not be Catholic.
- kiptw
  
  ”Let it be!”
Bucket

The first rule of religious statuary fight club is that you don’t talk about religious statuary fight club.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  She must have cheated. The 6th Rule of Religious Statuary Fight Club is No halo, no mantle.
  - Teller
    
    Just for your notebook: Haloes were an invention of the Romans, placed on statuary to protect the heads and faces from the elements and, I suppose, birds. From there they evolved into a religious symbol.
    - Warren Grant
      
      Much of modern Christianity, specifically Catholicism, is derived from the Pagan religions that predated it as well. Myth is not logical by and large.
      - Wreckrob8
        
        Maybe so. It is intuitive and not necessarily unreasonable. The Church reasons poorly.
http://www.aarongilliland.com/ Aaron Gilliland

Millions of devout Catholics around the world, and not one of them carries a bandage or tourniquet for an exsanguinating saint.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Their purses are crammed with crystal phials, just in case.
SomeGuyNamedMark

Sorry but Mary already appeared on a piece of my toast.
Pope Ratzo

I’ve got a statue in the back yard and when the mulberry trees have ripe fruit, there are marks like this all over it, thanks to the digestive systems of birds.

I can’t help but be reminded of the South Park about the bleeding Virgin Mary statue. Oh geez, I can’t even describe it without making this NSFW, especially if you happen to work at the Vatican.
pjcamp

Somebody capped her ass. Mary never shoulda got mixed up with the smack dealers.

How come the bleeding virgin never bleeds where a virgin ought to bleed?
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=679549499 Michael Birch

“Full of grace!” – Pecker (1998)
http://doran.pacifist.net/ Doran

I wonder what the folk who think the statue is bleeding think about global warming.
Grahamers2002

Good thing this wasn’t in India. You can get thrown in jail for debunking fake stuff like this:
http://reason.com/blog/2012/07/05/debunk-a-miracle-go-to-jail-for-blasphem
simonbarsinister

Fun With People ™:

Prank 1: Stained glass window in a church in the form and pattern of a 3D stereogram of Jesus or other appropriate symbolism. Bored parishoner lets his eyes unfocus and *wham* Jesus appears.

Prank 2: Make a ceramic mold of a statue of Jesus or Mary; Place a small growing cucumber in the mold; Allow to grow to fill the mold in the shape of the statue. Discretely place Holy Cucumber in a supermarket. Stand back, start video camera, let the fun begin.
- Bucket
  
  http://blog.makezine.com/2012/03/15/how-to-grow-a-portrait-gourd/
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Homunculicious!
    - katkins
      
      pareidolicious!
- wysinwyg
  
  I’ve wanted to make one of these babies for a long time now. Turns out a bunch of people beat me to the idea.
rattypilgrim

Oh, for God’s sake!
http://www.facebook.com/mary.m.mccurnin Mary Margaret McCurnin

and we wonder why this country is in so much trouble.
Paul Boudreaux

I suppose this is what happens when Mitt Romney visits. Is this local news anywhere in Baton Rouge? No, it’s CNN… Speaking of which, I think I’ll have myself a bloody mary and watch the episode of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia where they find a potentially “holy stain” in the back of their bar…
drunkenpastor

Jesus. Bullet wounds are supposed to bleed.
Petzl

Horatio Caine: [Insert bad "Bloody Mary" or "Virgin Bloody Mary" reference followed by Caine putting on trademark sunglasses]
YEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
[Roll Titles]
peterkvt80

Is this part of a new Jammie Dodger campaign? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Clu36dt2y88
http://twitter.com/sirkowski Sirkowski

That quote is so post-modernist it’s making me bleed too… e_e
Richard Kirk

“You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (RSV Exodus 20:3-6).

Jus’ sayin’, is all. Maybe a church down the road that hasn’t got a statue in the news ought to show them the error of their ways.
TRH

As a practicing Catholic (convert from Baptist!) who is quite accustomed to having the Church, and Catholics in general, bashed at every turn, I have to commend Mark. The quotation is a rather fair one about how such devotions work…. even if some particular devotions – such as this ridiculous bleeding statue – are clearly bunk.
katkins

If that’s pokeberry bird poo, I’m guessing there’s more nearby… holy gutter! Holy car! Holy sidewalk! Holy shirt! (Oh, yeah, I meant to sew that up.)
- Quiche de Resistance
  
  Poke salad Mary,
  birdies gotcher berries.
stuck411

How log was it before a holly rolling trinket cart showed up to shill its wares?
niktemadur

In my hometown a few years ago, a neon light outside a hospital started casting an elongated shadow. In a couple of days, HUNDREDS of devout catholics stood in pious vigil at night. I kept a picture of this miraculous apparition of the Virgin Of Guadalupe, here it is for your spiritual enjoyment.
- niktemadur
  
  Scheisse! OK, one more try…
http://www.barelyfitz.com/ BarelyFitz

“One way to think about it is to see how this is real for those who devote themselves to Mary…”

Reminds me of a quote from Blazing Saddles:

“You’ve got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know… morons.”
wysinwyg

Taking a second look I’m starting to think it might actually be a Carrie Fisher statue.
Shinkuhadoken

*sigh*

You spill one bottle of nail polish and you never hear the end of it…
Gnou

What started as a tweet in Baton Rouge became news in Tampa Bay. Someone call Edward Lorenz.