Our Lady of Akita

Beginning on January 4, 1975, a wooden statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the chapel of the Handmaids of the Eucharist in Akita, Japan, began weeping. The phenomenon occurred 101 times over the next six years, witnessed by over 500 people. The tears were collected and analyzed by Professor Sagisaka of the Faculty of Legal Medicine at Akita University, who confirmed they were human tears of blood type B (the statue's creator was type B). Earlier, in 1973, Sister Agnes Sasagawa — who was deaf — received three messages from the statue. Bishop John Shojiro Ito of Niigata approved the apparition in 1984 after extensive investigation, and Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) confirmed the approval.