The coronavirus prevented a public
gathering in Monongah of the twin mines explosions that killed 362 miners on
December 6, 1907 but the citizens of Molisano muncipality in Italy, which had 87
of its former residents among the dead, had an intense moment of reflection
during the Holy Mass in Duronia.
171 Italian-Americans died on that terrible day, including 87
from Molisano: Duronia (36) Frosolone (20), Torella del Sannio (12), Fossalt
(8), Pietracatella (7), Bagnoli del Trigno (3) and Vastogirardi (1).
The Monongah Cultural Association President is Meffe Gianni, a
reverse name of the Johnny Meffe I grew up with in Monongah. Duronia’s mayor is
Michelino D’Amico, another surname familiar among Monongah residents.
At the end of the mass there was then a moment of gathering, in
compliance with the current rules, at the memorial made in memory of the
victims in 2007, by artist Fernando Izzi, and at the old cemetery in the
village, where already in 1908 A plaque by heart was affixed by the City of
Duronia in 1908, the first and only testimony for nearly a century of the
greatest tragedy of Italian emigration.
There was a prayer for the victims and the deposition of a
bouquet of flowers to not forget those who abandoned their homeland in search
of a better future but who unfortunately lost their lives in the bowels of the
Monongah mines.
It remains the deadlyist coal mining tragedy in American
history.
It is the 11th worst coal mining calamity in world
history.
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