~A Tearful Farewell To Little Audrey Santos~
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/04/19/a_tearf=
ul_farewell_to_little_audrey/?rss_id=3DBoston+Globe+--+City+Weekly
~A tearful farewell to Little Audrey Marie Santo~ By Megan Tench, Globe
Staff -=A0April 19, 2007 WORCESTER, Mass. -- For decades, they came from
around the world and streamed through the lace-curtained bedroom of
Audrey Marie Santo, who went into a coma after nearly drowning when she
was 3 and who died Saturday at age 23.
Some prayed for the grace of a miracle. Others suffering from disability
or illness hoped for a divine healing. And some simply wanted to catch a
glimpse of the comatose girl who attracted a following after reports of
statues weeping oil, blood-stained Communion wafers, and miraculous
healings.
But at her funeral Mass at St. Paul's Cathedral yesterday, no mention
was made of the reported spiritual gifts or divine signs -- called
mysteries by the Catholic Church -- that had marked her life.
Hundreds of mourners -- relatives, caregivers, believers, and the
disabled and the healed -- smiled through tears as her shiny,
pearl-colored coffin was slowly wheeled down the aisle. Instead of
miracles, the Rev. Emmanuel McCarthy spoke about the value of a young
disabled girl's life and the love of her family.
"Let us be serious and clear for a moment and candid," McCarthy said,
addressing the solemn crowd. "Little Audrey lived because of this love.
This is Audrey's story."
McCarthy recalled the Friday night in 1987 when Santo was brought home
from the hospital. Her mother, Linda, and siblings Jennifer, Matthew,
and Stephen stood at her bedside, as he prayed over her.
"But that was it," McCarthy said. No media, no throngs of supporters
were waiting.
Twenty years later, on Saturday night, he returned to the same house
where Santo's family again stood vigil at her bedside and again there
were "no TV cameras, no reporters," McCarthy said, "just a little family
suffering terribly as the world slept, because one of them was about to
physically depart from them."
It has been two decades since Santo fell into the swimming pool in her
backyard and a family's private pain became a very public phenomenon and
she became widely known as Little Audrey.
Santo, who suffered from lack of oxygen to the brain, was said to have
communicated with the Virgin Mary when her mother took her on a
pilgrimage to Yugoslavia soon after the accident.
In 1989, word about the "miracle of Audrey Santo" began to sweep
Worcester as stories emerged from nurses about the weeping statues and
blood on the wafers, which was tested and found to be human. By August
of that year, an estimated 10,000 people gathered at the College of the
Holy Cross to attend an outdoor Mass, where the girl, 14 at the time,
was wheeled out on a stretcher.
The Diocese of Worcester launched an investigation, and in a 1999 report
concluded that there was no evidence of trickery, that the happenings
were "deep mysteries" but not definitive miracles.
After the Mass yesterday, Pat Coyne, who had volunteered at the Santo
home 10 years ago to help them manage the flow of visitors, told a
reporter: "Everything about her, everything you heard, is real. I've
witnessed it. I've seen the miracles, and I loved her. She was
wonderful."
Coyne motioned to friends sitting beside her. One was cured of fatal
illness, she said, after Coyne gave her a pin belonging to Audrey. The
woman, who asked not to be identified, said, "It was phenomenal." "I
wish we had been to see her before she died," said the woman's friend,
Angela Penny.
During the Mass, McCarthy told the crowd that despite the reported
miracles, the true measure of Santo's life lies with her family,
"arranging and rearranging as best they could their lives."
"It was done in the spirit of love," he said. Santo, he said, was a
silent messenger reminding the world that all of God's children are
worthy.
"A very large percentage of people in this society, in the world,
[believe] that a person like Audrey doesn't count," he said.
But in her family's embrace, Santo's life had greater meaning, McCarthy
said, and without ever saying a word, she posed a key question for the
future of society, "who counts in this world?"
One of Santo's caregivers, Diane McNutt, told the congregation that
working with Santo and witnessing her spiritual gifts firsthand "was a
very humbling experience."
"I am so grateful to God for the gift he gave me to care for her,"
McNutt said, weeping.
The Mass ended with the singing of "Amazing Grace." And just as it
began, Santo's coffin was wheeled slowly up the aisle. Her family, who
had lived beside her in the spotlight, asked that her burial remain
private. ~Tom Coss~
|
