From my friend John Sonnen in Roma:
Rome has many famous faces and when this poor fellow passed away in October of 2009 it was in the newspapers.Angelo was the famous homeless man who walked the streets of the neighborhood of Monti for years.Always polite he would greet you: "Come va lei?"Pray for the repose of the soul of Angelo Pagotto.
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Lord, look with kindess upon the soul of your child, Angelo. In your great Mercy, may he be washed clean in the blood of the Lamb. Grant him entrance into the joy of Your heavenly kingdom. Amen.
Praying
May he rest in the bosom of Abraham, with Lazarus and all His saints.
I think I met him on the streets of Rome 10,000 times, if not more, over the past three decades.
One priest likes to tell the story that if you didn’t have money to give him, saying you were hurting a bit, he would instantly offer as much money as was needed, surprising that priest to no end.
Angelo had the wisdom that only comes from living on the streets, a piercing, ironic knowledge of the human soul, immersed in the in your face reality of the streets.
There were times that I perceived he was having a rough day, or was it that he was perceiving that I was not as in touch with reality as I should be?
A few times he came out with an absolute gem of the spiritual life gained in union with non-stop suffering.
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May the Lord bless you abundantly, Angelo. Should I make it to the gates of heaven, I hope to have you on the welcoming committee to bring me into the eternal habitations.
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Thanks for this post, Fr Z. Rome will not be the same without Angelo. But maybe the Lord will appoint him to be a kind of “guardian angel” for the other street people of Rome.
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R.I.P.
I remember him. He is one of three or four street people of Rome I’ve been seeing there since 1987, the first of many trips there over the years. I remember Angelo being especially kind to my 82 year old grandmother, who didn’t even realize he was a street person, back in the late 1990’s. Prayers for his soul.
Requiescat in pace.
It may be nearly trite to speak about how many homeless we may have met who might have been, in fact, angels, but so be it.
How many may have we encountered who have truly been “angels” = “messengers” of the Lord, either knowing or unknowing?
Divinum auxilium maneat semper nobis cum, et fidelium animae per misericordiam Dei requiescant in pace.
Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine,
et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Te decet hymnus Deus, in Sion,
et tibi reddetur votum in Ierusalem.
Exaudi orationem meam;
ad te omnis caro veniet.
Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine,
et lux perpetua luceat eis
Lux æterna luceat eis, Domine,
cum sanctis tuis in æternum,
quia pius es.
Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine;
et lux perpetua luceat eis ;
cum Sanctis tuis in aeternum,
quia pius es.
What will be done with his body?
Praying for the repose of the soul of Angelo, Father. May he rest in peace.