146. Montaner: The Village of Surprises

Posted by Eva Ulian May 01, 2009

146. Montaner: The Village of Surprises

Photo of Montaner taken from across

the other side of the hills in Fregona,

the two villages are more or less

on the same height level

I found this tribute, a bouquet of blue and white flowers,
the colours of Our Lady,
outside the window of a butcher’s shop

Nine blog posts past, I wrote three posts on the pilgrimage statue of Our Lady from its arrival in the area: “137. What is All the Fuss About?” followed by “138. A Fraciscan in Town” and finally since some complained that I was overdoing it I wrote “139. Fregona: the Silence of the Hills”.

But as can be seen by the photos the pilgrimage of the statue was by no means over, from across the hills of Fregona it was carried to Montaner, so back it came to the Municipality of my village, Sarmede.

The Alpines from Montaner who unlike those from Sarmede

have a green uniform but the characteristic olive felt hat with the
long feather is the same whichever village corps one belongs,

were ready to take over the duty of carrying the statue to their church.

Montaner touches the highest peak of Sarmede beyond which is Cansiglio, the forest of the Alps. To reach Montaner from the bottom in Sarmede you have to do quite a few turns upwards in the car and not an easy venture for those suffering from heights. However, the statue was taken from Fregona which is more or less on the same level and therefore the passage was quite smooth.

The relative young Fr Adrian, Parish Priest of Montaner,
walking alongside the Franciscan Padre, Custodian of the Statue.

The children strew blue and white paper

confetti as the head the procession.

While running to keep up with the front, the back and the side of the procession I asked around if any arrangements had been made with the Orthodox Church which lies only yards away from the Catholic one. No, none had been made, as usual, since things have not gone down at all smoothly with the newcomers from way back in the 60s, however it seems that an unwritten law is implemented on these occasions being, which is of God is for everybody, no matter if you go to the white stone church or the red brick one below.

Montaner is a remarkable village, rugged, mountainous and yet modern, it is the only village in the area that has two churches, one Catholic and the other Christian Orthodox established in the 1960s and has been the cause of discord between the people of the two faiths.

I asked one of the photographers there (yes, Montaner has a web site mainly for those who have immigrated from the village) if there were any of the Orthodox parishioners in the crowd. “Considering that there are only 40 or 50 in all, yes, quite a high percentage of them are here,” he answered.

Settling down in church is quite an adventure.

But Fr. Adrian doesn’t panic, he has everything
under control, you can well believe it.

The photographer then explained to me that there is a service only once a month in the Orthodox church and usually for immigrants from the East, especially Turkey as this seems to be where the Patriarch of this Church is from.

The Parish Priest from Fregona
has accompanied the statue to its destination.

Again, one of the things that continues to amaze me is the enthusiasm that people have, and these mountainous people from the rugged hills seem to show it more vigorously than others.