Thursday, 4:30 PM
Hundreds gather to mourn woman credited with miracles by many
(AP file photo)
Mourners attended a funeral mass today for Audrey Marie Santo, who is shown above during viewing services on Tuesday at St. Paul's Cathedral in Worcester.
By Megan Tench, Globe Staff
WORCESTER -- Hundreds gathered at St. Paul's Cathedral this morning to bid farewell to Audrey Marie Santo, who went into a coma at age 3 after a near-drowning accident and died Saturday at age 23.
In the two decades since the accident, she lay in a back room of her family's home where the faithful streamed in to visit, crediting the girl with miracles and divine signs. In 1998, 10,000 people from across the country attended a Mass for her in Worcester.
The funeral Mass this morning, which lasted two hours, was very solemn with no mention of the miracles for which she had been lauded.
The Rev. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy recalled the night Santo, who had been called "Little Audrey," returned home from the hospital following her accident.
"I went to the Santo home," he said," to pray for Audrey and her family." There were no reporters or television cameras, just her mother and her siblings surrounding her bed.
McCarthy said he returned last Saturday, 20 years later, to the same house on the same street, and the family was again standing around Audrey's bed.
"No television cameras, no reporters, just a little family suffering terribly as the world slept because one of them was about to physically depart from them," he said.
McCarthy said those two days -- the day of Santo's accident, Aug. 9, 1987, and the day of her death -- seem to be "bookends" holding together the story of Audrey.
Ninety-nine percent of what would be observed in Santo's life will be her family "arranging and re-arranging as best they could their lives."
In addition to family and friends in the pews this morning, were disabled people with rosary beads tangled between their fingers and some who just believe in miracles and were seeking holy blessings.
As the Mass ended, the congregation sang "Amazing Grace."
Family members had said blood appeared on Communion wafers in the home and oil had oozed from statues. Some people claimed to have been cured of illnesses because of Santos.
In 1999, the archdiocese of Worcester released findings of a 14-month investigation into the reports of miracles attributed to Santo saying that it could not confirm claims of miracles or corroborate family members assertions that she could communicate, but it also said it found no evidence of trickery or manipulation.
