The community of Catona renews devotion to San Francesco di Paola, celebrating the miraculous crossing of the Strait.
“The particular admiration and devotion of the maritime to St. Francis draws reason from his excellent virtues. The sweet figure of the saint in that episode handed down by the contemporary chronicles that narrate the passage of the Strait of Messina on his slippery cloak posed on the waves are revived in the memory – they remember by the parish that organized the ceremony of yesterday -. virtues are carved in the heart of each Catonese “.
Among those present also the president of the city council, Enzo Marra: “Every year the ceremony of the deposition at sea, which celebrates and recalls the saint who has always been joined by the poorest, last and sick, is always a touching moment. St. Francis, patron of Calabria, underlines Marra – represents a spiritual and identity symbol of an entire region, but for Catona and its citizens, the image of St. Francis is much more. The protector of the sea people, whose universal values are so dear to the order of the minimum. They represent the dimension of a saint who with testimony has been able to pass on the great miracle of charity and humility, the citizens of the whole area, entrust their prayers, their concerns but also their hopes, because in Catona in 1464, he made one of his greatest miracles: the crossing of the Strait of Messina to land on the banks of Sicily, making his cloak a boat and a veil.