Man Tears Out Own Eyes In Church

Italian man says voices told him to do it
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 4, 2011 12:02 AM CDT
Man Tears Out Own Eyes In Church
"I carried on celebrating Mass but a lot of people had left because they were so shocked by what they had seen," the priest says.   (Shutterstock)

Hundreds of parishioners looked on in horror as an Italian man ripped out both of his own eyes during Mass on Sunday. Witnesses said the 46-year-old, who told paramedics that he heard voices, calmly stood up and began tearing at his eyes soon after the priest began his sermon, the Daily Mail reports. Churchgoers retrieved the eyes but surgeons were unable to save the man's sight.

"In all my 26 years of service, I have never seen anything like this before," a doctor who treated the man says. "He said that he had used his bare hands to tear out his eyeballs after hearing voices telling him to do so. To do something like that requires superhuman strength." The priest continued his sermon after the man was taken away, but by then most of his audience had fled in horror. (More church stories.)

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