The Queen of Heaven Cemetery crucifix: Joseph Reinholtz's Marian visions and the bleeding cross of Hillside, Illinois

Joseph Reinholtz had worked on the railroad. In 1980, by one account, he suddenly lost his vision. Years of blurred sight and blindness followed. In 1987 he travelled to Medjugorje and met Vicka, one of the six visionaries there, who prayed over him. After he came home, his sight slowly returned. He promised to spend his remaining days working and praying for the terminally ill.

On a second trip in 1989, the visionary gave him an instruction. Find a large crucifix beside a three-branched tree. He found it in the military section of Queen of Heaven Catholic Cemetery in Hillside, a 472-acre burial ground run by the Archdiocese of Chicago. The cross stood about 15 feet tall between two trees. He began to pray there every day.

August 15, 1990. The Feast of the Assumption. Reinholtz said the Virgin Mary appeared to him at the cross. November 1, 1990. All Saints' Day. She returned, he said, accompanied by St. Michael and three angels. Her messages were later gathered in a 52-page booklet.

He also collected photographs. He said they showed the cross bleeding and changing colors. Troy Taylor later described dozens of them, said to show angels and effects of light.

Word travelled through prayer groups, and many of the faithful had been to Medjugorje themselves. By July 1991, hundreds of worshippers were arriving daily. Sue Maher of Downers Grove said she had seen the cross bleed twice. Others said their rosaries turned to gold after they prayed at the site. Later visitors spoke of blood dripping from the cross, and of the smell of roses where no roses were present.

On July 24, 1991, the story went out on the UPI wire and in the Chicago Tribune. Rev. Michael Lane of St. Dominic Church in Bolingbrook came to see the site. He said he could not say whether any miracles had happened.

The cemetery was unmoved. Spokeswoman Dolores Vendel said no employees had reported anything unusual, and groundskeepers worried about vandalism and unruly crowds. "We run a nice quiet cemetery," Vendel told UPI. Staff looked into it and found nothing out of the ordinary.

The Archdiocese of Chicago placed a restriction of obedience on Reinholtz and asked him not to visit the cemetery. In 1992, after complaints about the crowds, the crucifix was moved, and in 1994 vandals broke the feet off the figure of Christ. No hoax was ever exposed and no chemical tests were ever recorded. Taylor said the photographs looked "a lot like bad photography and sun glare." Even the basic record is untidy, with sources placing Reinholtz in Hillside or in Westchester and dating his healing to 1986 or 1987.

Reinholtz suffered a stroke in February 1995. According to Taylor, Mary kept visiting him in hospital. He died on December 18, 1996, and the devotion outlived him.

In 2011 a blogger named Pat wrote of a visit with twin sister Pam and a friend, Tommy. The feet of the cross had been worn to a bright gold by touching hands. Then, Pat wrote, a small wind blew a rosary onto Tommy's hand as it rested on the stone. Tommy died four days later, of a heart attack. In January 2024 a devotional group said the cross and the Bloodstone would be moved temporarily and a shrine to the Blessed Mother removed for good, claiming "20,000s" of visitors over 32 years.