Pilgrim's death

[Tania A. Heinemann (home office)]

Rosina,

Thank you for passing this along.

I am not sure whether I am more sad or more happy ~ regardless this brave
woman fullfilled her last wish and made it. I honestly could not think of a
better place that I would prefer to 'go' than on El Camino with friends and
family around, let's hope its many years away of course!

Buen Camino Italian Peregrina!!
Tania

Quoting Rosina Lila <Blaroliaaol.com>:

> Hola,
> An Italian female pilgrim, dying of cancer, achieved her expressed
> desire to
> die"at the feet of the Apostle".
> She made the trip to Santiago by bus, with other Italians going to
> Santiago,
> despite the warnings of her doctors that the trip might hasten her
> death.  On
> September 8, she attended the Pilgrims' Mass during which she became
> quite
> ill; she was taken to the Sacristy by her companions and from there  to
> the
> cloister where she was attended by nurses of the Malta Order.  She is
> described as
> being about fifty years old, blonde, and vary pale. While on a gurney at
> the
> cloister she appeared to be in a great deal of pain holding her stomach.
> The
> Archbishop, Msgr. Julian Barrio, who was in the Cathedral at the time,
> went to
> her side, gave her communion and administered Extreme Unction rites.
> A summoned ambulance arrived shortly after and, at the urging of her
> family,
> she was taken to a private site where she died almost immediately.
> Her family informed that she knew herself to be suffering from
> terminal
> stomach cancer, but that, despite the attending pain of such illness,
> she had
> insisted on going to Santiago and attending a Pilgrims' Mass, in an
> ultimate act
> of faith and sacrifice.
>
> Some of you may remember the don Gayferos de Mormaltan romance in which
> he
> goes to Santiago to die "porque eu morrerei contento nesta Santa
> Catedral"
> (because I will die happy in this Holy Cathedral), and the myriad of ill
> and dying
> pilgrims  who have made their way to Santiago, or tried to, throughout
> the
> centuries.
> The book "Aventura y Muerte en el Camino de Santiago" (Adventure and
> Death in
> the Santiago Camino) by Valdivieso  Ausin, ISBN 84-8991-5-09-1, recounts
> many
> abundantly documented such pilgrimages and deaths.
> I guess that neither faith, nor the heart ever changes.
> The Archdiocese offered a Mass for the soul of the Italian pilgrim;  I
> am
> sure that many of us will add our prayers.
>
> Rosina
>



Tania
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

\"Though  we  travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry
it with us or we find it not.\\\" ~ Emerson

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