Italian Nun Survived in Earthquake Wants to attend the Canonization of Mother Teresa in Rome
She became the face of Italy’s earthquake: The photograph of Sister Marjana Lleshi, blood staining her veil as she texted her friends that she was alive, was seen across the world. The 35-year-old nun recounted how she thought she would die when her convent walls collapsed. She texted her friends asking that they pray for her soul, only to be rescued by a man she has called her “Angel”.
Now safe, Sister Lleshi says she wants nothing more than to go to next week’s Rome canonization of Mother Teresa, “who gave hope to those who didn’t have any”. She still hopes to travel to Rome for the Sept. 4, 2016, canonization of Mother Teresa, the Macedonian-born ethnic Albanian nun who ministered to the poor of India. But the chaos and horror of the moment may be too much. Her Order lost three sisters and four of the elderly women they cared for, alongside incalculable losses in the wider community. Sister Lleshi was sleeping in the Don Minozzi convent beside the Church of the Most Holy Crucifix in Amatrice when the quake struck early on Wednesday. She had been there, with six other sisters, caring for five elderly women. Her order, the Sisters of the Handmaidens of the Lord, runs nurseries and homes for the aged.
She woke up covered in dust and bleeding. Realizing what had happened, she immediately tried to summon help outside her room. No one responded. And she couldn’t get out. When she started losing all hope of being saved, she resigned herself to it and started sending messages to friends saying to pray for her and to pray for her soul and said goodbye to them forever, as per sources. That moment was immortalized in an image taken by a photographer for the ANSA news agency reprinted worldwide.
She said she eventually was rescued by a young man who cared for one of the elderly women at the home. She still hopes to travel to Rome for the Sept. 4 canonization of Mother Teresa. “For me, she’s the symbol of Albania, of a strong woman,” she said of Teresa. “I would have liked to go, but after this, I don’t think I can.” She can relish the simple fact of still being alive. “I had said ‘adieu,’ she said, “and in the end, it wasn’t an adieu.”
Inputs from YahooNews