A fire severely damaged a 17th-century monastery outside of Milan in northern Italy, where St Carlo Acutis received his first Holy Communion, forcing 21 cloistered nuns to flee the blaze. Source: CNA.
The fire broke out at Bernaga Monastery at about 7.30pm on Saturday as the nuns – part of the Ambrosian hermitages of the Order of St Ambrose ad Nemus – were watching a live television stream of Pope Leo XIV’s prayer vigil for peace in St Peter’s Square.
The women escaped without harm, but the monastery, which was built in 1628, was nearly destroyed. Nine firefighting teams intervened to put out the blaze.
The Milan Archdiocese reported that the fire destroyed documents, religious artifacts, and the nuns’ personal belongings, though the religious sisters managed to save some paintings and a relic of St Carlo Acutis, who received his first holy Communion at the monastery on June 16, 1998.
Milan Archbishop Mario Delpini expressed his closeness and prayers following the disaster: “I know that the nuns will continue to pray and that trust in God will be the most necessary encouragement.”
“We still don’t know what really caused the fire, and we will probably never know, since almost everything has been destroyed. Thank God the nuns were quick to call for help and get to safety in a matter of minutes … Unfortunately, when the fire department arrived, the monastery was already completely engulfed in flames,” Fr Emanuele Colombo told the Archdiocese of Milan.
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Fire damages historic Italian monastery where St Carlo Acutis received first Communion (By Veronica Giacometti, CNA)
