Home

Previous Entry | Next Entry

A morbid bit from my recent stop in Sicily...

  • Sep. 7th, 2008 at 5:50 PM
Cemetery Angel


This little girl died most likely of influenza in 1920. She was embalmed by a chemistry professor by the name of Dr. Alfredo Salafia. She is interred in the Capuchin catacombs (in the company of thousands of other less well preserved persons), Palermo, Sicily. This is a scan of a post card I bought while visiting.



Comments

( Leave a comment )
[info]autumn_arianna wrote:
Sep. 8th, 2008 04:43 am (UTC)
I have seen photos of her before, and on many T.V. specials of that nature.
It is sad, yet amazing to see.
| Reply | Thread
[info]annelaure wrote:
Sep. 8th, 2008 07:12 am (UTC)
I've seen her before as well.

Impressive, and indeed, sad at the same time !
| Reply | Parent | Thread
[info]bacchuslives wrote:
Sep. 8th, 2008 08:43 pm (UTC)
See reply to autumn_arianna :)
| Reply | Parent | Thread
[info]annelaure wrote:
Sep. 8th, 2008 08:50 pm (UTC)
*does what is told*
| Reply | Parent | Thread
[info]bacchuslives wrote:
Sep. 8th, 2008 09:28 pm (UTC)
on other note, got a couple goodies for you and will hopefully mail tomorrow :)
| Reply | Parent | Thread
[info]annelaure wrote:
Sep. 9th, 2008 07:33 am (UTC)
*does happy dance* !
| Reply | Parent | Thread
[info]bacchuslives wrote:
Sep. 9th, 2008 03:31 pm (UTC)
The parcel is away! ...but I was in such a rush to get it posted I realized I didn't include a note about the contents. What a bone head I can be.
| Reply | Parent | Thread
[info]annelaure wrote:
Sep. 10th, 2008 10:11 pm (UTC)
I think that letters travel faster than parcels. You can always send me one, and I promise I'll only open it when I get the parcel ... :)
| Reply | Parent | Thread
[info]annelaure wrote:
Sep. 13th, 2008 08:46 pm (UTC)
Something ironic...
Today I opened my mail box and I thought "wow, this really is fast ! I could never have imagined his card would have arrived that soon!"...
Of course, I was thinking about a card to go with the parcel.
Thing is, it's the card you sent me from Boston, that says you're waiting to get a plane to Paris !!!!!!
It felt so weird, both close in distance and far in time !
| Reply | Parent | Thread
[info]bacchuslives wrote:
Sep. 13th, 2008 10:01 pm (UTC)
Re: Something ironic...
Yes, a post card from out of time... That got there fast, seems I just posted it a couple days ago
| Reply | Parent | Thread
[info]bacchuslives wrote:
Sep. 8th, 2008 08:42 pm (UTC)
Sad, yet the immortality she had now is sort of nice. If it were me, I'd think it was kind of cool that people were coming to see me and sending my picture about the world via post and internet... Beats being forgotten after a couple generations.
| Reply | Parent | Thread
[info]annelaure wrote:
Sep. 8th, 2008 08:52 pm (UTC)
I guess I would rather be slowly forgotten rather than have all these people come and visit me.
Mainly because, well, I would be dead, and wouldn't be able to "enjoy" their presence.

When I see her I can't help thinking how she was, what was the color of her eyes, and how beautiful and full of life she was.
| Reply | Parent | Thread
[info]meathiel wrote:
Sep. 8th, 2008 04:31 pm (UTC)
Now, that's really morbid!

Unfortunately I didn't have the chance to visit the catacombs when I was in Palermo ... :-( My parents went, though, but I don't think they bought this postcard! ;-)
| Reply | Thread
[info]bacchuslives wrote:
Sep. 8th, 2008 08:38 pm (UTC)
I'm glad I went, but I have to say, there are so many corpses that it just doesn't seem real.

I'm keeping this postcard for myself, but I got others to send out for Halloween ;)
| Reply | Parent | Thread
[info]phthisical wrote:
Sep. 8th, 2008 09:42 pm (UTC)
One of the platitudes often offered when a young person dies is that they are lucky "to be young forever". In Rosalia's instance, this appears to be especially true. The mould or mildew on the prayer card testify to the ravages of time.

I heard a poignant story about this child, which may or may not be true. Apparently, she had a number of siblings. Her siblings would make an annual visit to their dead sister. As the years went by, the siblings grew up and grew old. Every year they still made a visit, even when they were in their eighties. The group of siblings shrank every year, as Rosalia's brothers and sisters died off. Finally, only one sibling survived to make a last, lone pilgrimage to the body of the sister who had died so long ago. The next year, no siblings were left to visit Rosalia.
| Reply | Thread
[info]bacchuslives wrote:
Sep. 8th, 2008 09:49 pm (UTC)
Interesting. I'm not sure when the photo for this postcard was taken. Her skin tone has darkened somewhat but her state of preservation is quite amazing.

The reason I was even aware of the catacombs was because of an article on her that I had stumbled across, so after a fashion, I crossed an ocean to visit her.
| Reply | Parent | Thread
( Leave a comment )