A powerful earthquake in Colombia left a centuries-old Catholic chapel severely damaged and its tabernacle destroyed, prompting a priest and religious sister to carefully recover consecrated hosts from amid the rubble.
The Aug. 10 earthquake struck Chiquinquirá in Roldanillo, in Colombia’s Valle del Cauca region, at 7:34 a.m. local time. Our Lady of the Rosary Chapel, a historic church dating to the 17th century, was among the buildings badly damaged.
According to EWTN News, falling debris knocked the chapel’s wooden tabernacle from its place. Inside had been a ciborium containing consecrated hosts remaining from Mass celebrated the previous Saturday.
Father Germán Andrés Clavijo, pastor of St. Sebastian Parish, entered the damaged chapel shortly after the earthquake with Sister Marcela of the Community of the Blessed Sacrament.
“I said to her, ‘Help me look, because the consecrated hosts are there,’” Clavijo told ACI Prensa, as reported by EWTN News.
The two searched through the debris until they located the ciborium. “We found the ciborium, but it was completely smashed,” Clavijo said, explaining that “some of the hosts were badly broken.”
With the chapel still unsafe, the priest and religious sister carefully gathered the hosts by hand and placed them in a smaller ciborium. According to EWTN News, they prayed litanies to the Blessed Sacrament as they worked.
For particles that could not be recovered from the dirt and rubble, water was sprinkled over the affected areas. Clavijo explained that hosts mixed with debris would be placed in water until the Eucharistic species dissolved, after which the water could be reverently poured by a tree or into a potted plant.
The careful response reflects the Catholic Church’s belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches in paragraph 1377 that “the Eucharistic presence of Christ begins at the moment of the consecration and endures as long as the Eucharistic species subsist.”
For Clavijo, seeing the Eucharist scattered amid the wreckage was deeply painful.
“It is the life of the priest; that is the life of the Church; it is our center,” he said, according to EWTN News.
Yet the priest said the immediate danger required him to remain focused. With the possibility of aftershocks and additional falling debris, he said, “It wasn’t the time for lamenting; after all, the earthquake had just happened, and we were in a very unsafe spot.”
The devastation extended far beyond the chapel. According to the Valle del Cauca governor’s office, two people were killed and 112 injured. Nearly 1,300 homes were affected, including some that completely collapsed, while 60% of the local hospital sustained structural damage.
The parish church has also been closed because of earthquake damage, Clavijo said, forcing the Catholic community to celebrate Mass in the town square. Our Lady of the Rosary chapel is likewise unusable, and because it is classified as a national heritage building, its restoration will depend on the Colombian government.
Amid the destruction, Clavijo offered prayers for residents who lost homes and loved ones and encouraged the community to place its hope in God.
“With hope and God’s hand, all of us united, will overcome this storm,” he said.
Drawing upon the Gospel account of Christ reaching out to Peter amid the storm, Clavijo added that even when life appears overwhelmed by “strong winds and turbulent waves,” Christians can still cry out in faith: “Lord, save us.”
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