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Remembering an Act of Terrorism


[image ALT: missingALT. It is a wayside shrine commemorating the World War II execution of a priest near Bevagna, Umbria (central Italy).]

When in the middle of World War II Italy of her own will overthrew her leaders and joined the free world in repelling Nazism, she paid a heavy price for her courage: allies who had been guests on her soil suddenly became spited foes and occupiers. The retreating Germans reacted with acts of unspeakable barbarity from one end of Italy to the other, burning the Roman ships of Nemi, wantonly destroying the fountain of Pesaro, destroying churches and cultural monuments — and, as here remembered, killing civilians in what can only be described as acts, if not a policy, of terrorism.


[image ALT: The inscription on a wayside shrine commemorating the World War II execution of a priest near Bevagna, Umbria (central Italy). The inscription is transcribed and translated on this webpage.]

qui
ove il furore e la barbarie tedesca
fecero scempio delle membra sante
del levita di Cristo
Don MICHELE LILLI
parroco di S. Maria Laurentia
a GESU′ CROCIFISSO
questo tabernacolo eressero
l'esecrazione e la pieta'
del popolo di Bevagna
nobile retaggio ai figli suoi
nel giorno del primo anniversario 16 giugno 1945

here
where German fury and barbarity
killed the blessed body
of Christ's minister
Don MICHELE LILLI
parish priest of Santa Maria Laurentia.
To JESUS CRUCIFIED
this tabernacle was built
by both the hatred and the piety
of the people of Bevagna
as a worthy legacy to its sons.
on the first anniversary of the event, June 16, 1945.


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Page updated: 1 Oct 19