Museo della lacrimazione, Siracusa

The Museum of Weeping is the most important of the three Museums of the Sanctuary because here are exhibited documents, photographs, and newspaper articles concerning the “”Weeping of the Madonna in Syracuse””, but also numerous objects linked to this event such as some rags used to clean the weeping statue of the “”Madonnina””, the test tubes and tools used to analyze the chemical composition of these tears (which turned out to be “”human”” with a chemical composition similar to that of a child’s tears) as well as the wooden desk with which the authenticity of the tears shed by the “”Madonna”” was certified, the trowel with which the “”First Stone”” of the Sanctuary was raised in 1964 used by then Cardinal of Sicily Ernesto Ruffini, the pontifical ring of Monsignor Ettore Baranzini who was Archbishop of Syracuse during the years when the cult of the “Madonna of Tears” developed (1953 – 1973), the gold “Cross” of Monsignor Sebastiano Rosso first rector of the emerging “Sanctuary”, various liturgical objects including a silver Chalice and Monstrance donated by the Cassone family and numerous rather precious Ex votos.