by GUILLAUME DELACROX
Flasks for collecting holy water from the cave of Massabielle in Lourdes PHOTO/J-N Lafargue
ROME – Meet Enza Maria Ciccolo. The 71-year-old woman claims to be a biology researcher; on her website, she says she graduated from the University of Pisa and studied auriculotherapy (a form of acupuncture in which needles are placed in various points of the ear) in the French city of Lyon.
Two weeks ago, the Italian Carabinieri police unit specialized in Social Security fraud knocked on Ciccolo’s door and discovered no less than 4,000 flasks containing tap water. Odd as it may have looked at first sight, it hardly looked like a crime scene — except that the vials were ready to be passed off as holy water –”acqua benedetta”– from pilgrimage sites like Lourdes (France), Montichiari (Italy), Fatima (Portugal) and Medjugorje (Bosnia Herzegovina). Going price per vial: 200 euros.
The water was stored all over Italy, from Milan to Bari. Ciccolo called the water “White Light” in reference to the apparitions of the Virgin Mary, but also as an allusion to the liquid’s supposed capacity of synthesizing all the colors of the rainbow.
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