Barefoot feet, faces stood with tears, junished hands, smiles full of gratitude: they are the “signs” of devotion to Sant’Antonio di Padova, who continues to unite thousands of people. From Sicily, Calabria and Pugliabut also from overseas to see the triumphant wagon parade with the relics of the holy thaumaturge donated by the Basilica of Padua to which Annibale Maria di France, founder of the Rogationists, wanted to name the basilica of via Santa Cecilia.
A prodigy also renewed yesterday in Messina. In the courtyard of the Institute, the great votive machine is prepared with great care by Giuseppe Pistone: the arrangement of the flowers, the seats for the seafaring, the lights around the world map overlooked by the statue of the saint. Giuseppe is the son of art: his father Pietro, 86 years old, has been the maintenance of the chariot for over half a century. How many stories of life lived between faith and devotion among those present: a gentleman with shiny eyes is there “to say thanks to Antonio” for his wife, who just a year ago on the day of his liturgical party, on June 13, received the miracle of the transplant. A mother with her daughter in a wheelchair revealed that she never lacks the procession, because «S. Antonio helped me to transform pain into hope, “he said. A joy that knows of welcome and inclusion, as evidenced by the constant presence of the Filipin and Srilankese communities. Popular devotion is never separate from the faith and that human river of people who among the applause greeted the exit of the procession between a shower of colored confetti It is the testimony: the rector of the sanctuary, Father Mario Magro – with Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the Dicastery for the Oriental Churches – recalled it from the stage of via Santa Cecilia where he has given the blessing: “Your numerous presence is the most beautiful and concrete sign of how much the message of Antonio is still alive and operating”.
A choral invocation that also in the morning during the pontifical Cardinal Gugerotti raised, together with the institutional representatives, for the peoples afflicted by the war. The purple prayed so that “the love wave of the city of the Strait can radiate all over the world”.
The origins of the “votive machine”
The history of Triumphal wagon has its roots in 1931when it was made for the first time on the occasion of the seventh centenary of the saint’s death. Conceived by Adolfo Romano with the support of the then Archbishop Angelo Pajnothe first wagon was a wooden structure driven by six oxenadorned with red gloildappe and garlands, as reported by the chronicles of Rogationist fathers.
There Bread devotion found visual expression through intertwined wheat manipoliplaced along the steps of the structure; At the top they were drawn Twelve orphans with lilies in hand. The wagon, decorated with Flowers, herbs, palm trees, flags and illuminated by 150 multi -colored bulbsculminated in the statue of the saint with the child in his arms. It is estimated that on that occasion about 60,000 people They took part in the procession, described as “dense and swarming waves of people who dwell on the immense way”.