Our Lady of Naju: the weeping statue of Julia Kim

Julia Youn Hong-sun was born in Naju in 1947. Her married name is Kim, and followers call her Mama Julia. Her father and grandfather were killed by Communist soldiers in the Korean War. Poverty kept her from finishing junior high school. Later came cancer and other illnesses. She says she was healed after a priest counselled her to accept suffering as a blessing. In 1972 she married Julio Kim, who worked in Naju's agricultural department. In 1982, the movement says, Julia Kim had a vision of Jesus with a bleeding Sacred Heart, asking for suffering for the conversion of sinners.

30 June 1985. In her home in Naju, Julia saw the statue of Our Lady in her room weeping for the first time. On 18 July came the first message. "I am sad. Many people still do not believe even after they saw my bloody sweat."

19 October 1986. According to the movement, the clear tears turned into tears of blood. Tears and blood came on 700 days in all, until 14 January 1992. Supporters say the blood was tested in a medical laboratory and found to be human.

Then the statue gave oil. From 24 November 1992, fragrant oil is said to have flowed for 700 consecutive days. Some accounts say the statue moved, and that a fragrance of roses came from Julia's body.

From May 1988, the movement reports twelve Eucharistic miracles. The host turned to visible flesh and blood on Julia's tongue. Between 1994 and 1997, hosts are said to have descended from above in the chapel seven times. In sworn testimony, Bishop Roman Danylak said "dark red, living flesh and blood was flowing." Supporters also claim that on 31 October 1995, during a private Mass in a Vatican chapel, Pope John Paul II witnessed a Eucharistic miracle. "The Sacred Host in my mouth was becoming larger," Julia said. No independent confirmation of that episode has been found. As late as 11 June 2002, fresh blood marks were reported on the ground.

The Archdiocese of Gwangju set up an investigation committee in December 1994. It met fifteen times. On 1 January 1998, Archbishop Victorinus Youn Kong-hi declared the events not of supernatural origin. The messages, he said, "contain human and artificial elements, lacking in purity and authenticity." Visiting Naju was "an act of breaking the unity of the faith of the Church."

Archbishop Andreas Choi Chang-mou reaffirmed the ruling in 2001 and gave a final warning in 2005. On 21 January 2008 he decreed automatic excommunication for those who celebrate or take part in sacraments at Naju. "I declare as such, though my heart grieves," he wrote. Supporters dispute the decree. In October 2025 a letter from the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, passed on by Singapore, repeated the penalty. Warnings followed in Kuching, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and the Philippines. In January 2026 the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea added its own.

In 2007, MBC's PD Sucheop broadcast "Miracle or Fraud? The Truth of Naju Marian Hill." It followed two healing claims in Indonesia and found no improvement. Julia refused a genetic test, saying "the blood and flesh of Jesus cannot be treated carelessly." In 2018, TV Chosun found fecal coliform in the site's miracle water and pointed to inconsistencies in the movement's video footage. Researchers of weeping statues in general point to condensation, liquid seeping through cracked glaze, or oil smeared on the eyes.

The movement now calls itself Mary's Ark of Salvation. It claims more than 1,000 miracles since 1985 and still runs pilgrimages to Naju, one of them advertised for October 2026. Its closest Asian parallel is Our Lady of Akita in Japan. Whether the 2008 decree touches Julia herself, and what the Vatican really said, is still argued over today.