Gladly, we followed an invitation of the Pallotti family to celebrate together with them our founder and their holy family member in the family’s place of origin, San Giorgio di Cascia in Umbria. Here, Pietro Paolo Pallotti, St. Vincent’s father was born. In 1819, Vincent Pallotti himself had made his way to San Giorgio, walking three days from Rome. Warmly welcomed, he stayed there for several weeks.
Today, descendants of the family still live here. After the canonisation of our founder, Marcello Pallotti had started the tradition to celebrate his feast around the date of St. Vincent’s priestly ordination. In May the weather was expected to be more favourable then around St. Vincent’s feastday in January when snow is likely to cover the Umbrian mountains and makes it difficult for people to reach.
Up to today, the tradition is carried on by the families of Marcello’s sons and daughter who invite members of the spiritual family of St. Vincent Pallotti to join their feast. From Rome we started by bus early Sunday morning: priests and sisters of both congregations, more than twenty of us. Generously, the Pallotti family opened their door for us and invited us for a breakfast, offering a rich buffet table with home-made delicacies.
Afterwards, we celebrated a holy mass with Fr. Airton Josè Dallazen, SAC as the main celebrant. Unfortunately, the village’s beautiful old church could not be used as it had suffered severe cracks due to the earthquake in 2016.
Then the Pallotti family invited us pilgrims from Rome to join with them for a rich festive dinner in a restaurant near Cascia. The only difficulty was that we had to decide how much and what we could eat from the many courses. The food was delicious, but above all we enjoyed being together with the relatives of our founder. And we felt that all of us were united, even if we had different ties to St Vincent Pallotti.
After the meal another special event followed when we had the procession through the village where all the streets were decorated with small flags. The sons and grandsons of Marcello Pallotti carried a Pallotti statue while we joined in the prayers and songs to which a band from Spoleto was playing.
In the evening, we returned to Rome where we reached tired, but most grateful for the warm welcome that had made us feel at home in our founder’s place of origin.
Text: Sr. Adelheid Scheloske, SAC
Photos: Sr. Bozena Olszewska, SAC (2), Sr. Adelheid Scheloske, SAC (2), Sr. Beata Matuszewska, SAC (1)
See also the event gallery.
