Mary’s devotion is linked to stories of families who have embarked on a journey understood as a destination, path, destination, sharing, bond with the one who has always protected the city of Messina. Also this year the feast of the Madonna of the good journey to the Ringo gave great emotions: from the exit of the imposing simulacrum from the small church that looks at the strait until returning, with the suggestive fires at sea, passing through the stops in via Duca degli Abruzzi with the suggestive flight of the angel and the floral tribute to Mary and the one on the square of the church of S.lena for mass.
Stories of devotion that is handed down from father to son, young people who carry the weight of the varetta with shiny eyes on their shoulders, they are a sign of hope and a lot of beauty. Like Fabio De Francesco, 35 years old (son of Capo Varetta Franco, a historic fisherman) who left Messina to go to work in Piedmont and this year he has returned to live this special day since he was a child. Antonio Catanzaro, son of the deputy governor of the Confraternity of Jesus and Mary of the good journey Santino, to his fourth year as a bearer. He was born on 27 August 2006, the day of the party that falls on the last Sunday of August and the parents entrusted him to the Madonna del Ringo. Then there is Gabriele De Santis, his parents are also in the confraternity; He was 16 when he brought the Madonna for the first time, an inevitable rite. Then, the boarding on the Amerigo Vespucci took him far from Messina, but the link with Mary through the sea remained unchanged. This year he managed to return to the city to live the joy of the party bringing the Madonna back on his shoulders again.
The procession, a ritual that is faith and devotion, but above all an opportunity to “look at Mary as a model of life, rediscover the beauty of prayer along the path of every day” as the rector of the Church of the Ringo and parish priest of S. Elena Don Giuseppe Lonia said. The path of the procession was marked by the beats of the hammer entrusted this year to the governor Nino de Grazia who today performs 80, many of whom lived in the Church of the Ringo and accompanied by the Band of Larderia. Great participation of faithful, of the confraternities of the good journey, San Francesco di Paola and San Libele, of the mayor Federico Basile with the commissioner Massimo Finocchiaro, of the banner of the fifth municipality with the president Raffaele towards and the councilor Beatrice Belfiore; Among the young devotees also the priest Giuseppe Rinaldi, son of the community of Sant’Elena and linked to the Madonna of the good journey who seized his vocation. In the afternoon on the Ringo beach, the pole a mare Memorial Fabio Frisone, dedicated to the young bearer who recently disappeared; It was Marco Minissale who won the trophy by making the other 20 competitors after 14 long turns.