Two men from Acerra near Naples went on hunger strike on Thursday to demand the return of a statue of the Madonna that was once at the centre of a miracle ruckus.
"We've been fighting for two years to get our Madonna back and have decided on this extreme form of protest because nothing else seems to work," the two men, aged 56 and 30, told reporters.
The 1.75-metre-tall Madonna was removed from the Church of San Pietro in Acerra two years ago after dozens of faithful claimed to have seen her legs move.
Thousands of pilgrims besieged the small church after the first, July 2005 incident and many of them subsequently claimed that they too had seen the statue's legs moving.
The Church authorities took the Madonna away for tests by a special committee.
The committee concluded in June that "no miracle took place" and that a "play of light" had created the illusion of the statue's legs coming to life.
Acerra Bishop Giovanni Rinaldi said that "any supernatural explanation for the phenomenon can categorically be excluded".
The statue is still in the custody of the bishop of Acerra.
The two hunger strikers said: "The bishop can stick up a notice in front of the statue saying that nothing miraculous has happened as long as he gives us back our Madonna".
"She was made for the Church of San Pietro and that is where she should be kept," they said.
