Margao: Villagers of Raia, on Sunday, offered a litany and prayed for their safety given the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic situation, at the century-old cross, which was built in the memory of the villagers who had fallen victim to the Spanish flu in 1918.
The cross has been beautified and was blessed on Sunday in the presence of many villagers.
“I read the story of this cross in ‘The Navhind Times’ recently. The report highlighted how Raia people, in the present COVID times, had started praying before the cross, that was constructed a hundred years ago, in the memory of the villagers who succumbed to the Spanish flu. Reading about the cross, I decided to beautify it. My family members also agreed to it. The site is now beautified making it easy for the villagers to pray in memory of the victims and also for the villagers’ safety,’’ said Margareta D’Costa, a villager. She urged the locals to maintain the place clean.
Parish priest of Raia Fr Conceicao D’Silva blessed the beautified cross. He urged the villagers to pray at the cross seeking God’s blessings and also for keeping the villagers safe from the COVID pandemic.
This daily had reported on September 19 how the village elders had started praying before the cross after COVID-19 positive cases came to be detected in the village.
Prayers increased after a part of the Raia village-Arlem-was declared a containment zone on July 23 after 17 COVID positive cases were reported.
The prayers continued at the cross as a COVID death was reported at Raia recently. Nearly 150 COVID cases have been reported in Raia village so far.
The history tells that Raia village was the only village in the state which had affected badly with the Spanish flu, hundred years ago.
The records available state that at least 319 people had died of Spanish flu in the year 1918 and as a result, the cemetery constructed then, was full to its capacity and, therefore, another place was identified (the existing cemetery) on urgent basis to bury the increasing dead bodies then.
