April 11

Anna Monaro, the Glowing Woman

Anna Monaro via Kurioso

On this day in 1934, Dr. Giocondo Protti kept vigil, along with a team of four other medical specialists, at the bedside of a very sick woman. The patient was Anna Monaro, 42, who had fasted for lent and weakened her system sufficiently that her asthma had flared up in a very severe attack. But the doctors weren't attending because of that. They were there to witness, analyze and explain the bright blue glow that emanated from her breasts as she slept. It appeared for several seconds at a time, usually when she was sleeping most deeply. This had begun at the same time as her illness and now happened several times each night over a period of several weeks.

During and after each incident Anna's breathing and heart rate would double for a short time. She would groan and sweat heavily after the glow left her. According to some sources the glow was caught on film, though I cannot find any reference to the film's current whereabouts. Among the many witnesses to testify to the reality of this phenomenon was Guglielmo Marconi.

A contemporary account via Kurioso

A similar case of luminescence was mentioned issuing from a woman with breast cancer in Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine by Gould and Pyle. In that case the glow issued from the sore and was bright enough to read the face of a watch several feet away. In Anna's case, however, the glow appeared to emanate from beneath the unbroken skin, and was strong enough to light the entire room.

Curiously, Japanese scientists were able to photograph a faint natural bioluminescence in the human body, caused by energy released as light through changes in energy metabolism. The 2009 study discovered that the light varied according to the time of day, and did not correspond to the brightest areas on thermal images of the body. Ultra-sensitive cameras were used because the light emitted was a thousand times weaker than the human eye can perceive. Was Anna's glow simply an extreme intensification of the same processes?

A number of theories were put forward, none of them completely fitting the facts of the case. After she had fully recovered from her hospitalization the glow left her and, as far as I can determine, never troubled her again.