ciadoncha; ¡cuántos recuerdos - Webpages at SCU - Santa Clara ...

the sacristy of the church, wherein we find a special dedication from the Marquis to Fr.
Isidoro.
Letter from José Rújula, Marquis of Ciadoncha. 1935
Photo by Lucia Varona. 2005
Fr. Antonio is remembered in Ciadoncha as the person who was there to help, to
correct, to lead. They resorted to him if they had to call the medic or for any other
religious service. But amongst the things that I heard the most was that Fr. Antonio had a
smell for curing.
In reality I was not able to understand if holiness had a special smell, or was it
because of their garment and style of living of those times that realty gave the priest a
peculiar smell? But it was with laughs that the participants remembered all the hits on
the side of the head, a way that the parish priest corrected those who did not behave well.
Some commented that back then the parish priest was much respected. In order to greet
him one would have to kneel and kiss his hand. Back then there was a big difference
between the priest and the faithful- the parish priest was always treated with a lot of
respect.
It appeared important to me to explore what was the function of the parish priest
in the towns. Upon speaking of this, Fr. Emérito commented that their function was, and
has always been, that of accompanying. The style of how to do this depends on the times
and the circumstances. The past priests had to distribute their time doing various
activities in a very ritual and religious form. Every day, in the mornings they had to
attend mass and in the afternoon they had to pray the rosary, visit the ill and visit the
schools. During their free time they were in charge of the books from the parish office,
worthy work of appreciation because in reality many of the civil books had disappeared.
Therefore, all the files of Ciadoncha were lost in a fire that occurred in what today is the
Santa Barbara Cultural Center, a place where they were being stored while the new city
hall building was constructed.
39