The popular faith of Brescello: the blessing of the river

Brescello is a small town along the Po river famous for being the main setting for the films starring Don Camillo and the Communist Mayor Peppone. In one of those films, Don Camillo brings the statue of the 'Talking Christ' to bless the river, always at risk of overflowing. Don Evandro Gherardi, at the time parish priest of Brescello, did the same in 2013 and then in 2014. 2013 was the first time in which the famous crucifix came out of the church again to return to the banks of the Po, in order to ask God to contain its waters. Unfortunately, however, the floods of the river are something that the inhabitants of Brescello are used to. The worst flood was that of 1951, when 89 people died. This is why the processions of 2013 and 2014 were very popular. The emotion was great when Don Evandro went down to the water that already covered most of the trees. There were also elderly people who remembered the dramatic flood of '51, compared to which the subsequent ones of '94 and 2000 did not even seem so serious.