The Tumaco event
The Tumaco event
The waves of the sea recede before the consecrated Host.
The following event took place on January 31, 1906, in the town of Tumaco, belonging to the Republic of Colombia, and located on a tiny island in the western part of that Republic, bathed by the Pacific Ocean. The reverend Father Fray Gerardo Larrondo de San José was there as a missionary priest at that time, having Father Fray Julián Moreno de San Nicolás de Tolentino, both Recollects, as an assistant in the care of souls.
It was almost ten in the morning, when a frightful earth tremor began to be felt, this being of such duration that, according to Father Larrondo’s belief, it could not have been less than ten minutes, and so intense that it hit all the images on the screen. church on land Needless to say, the panic that took hold of that town, which all crowded into the church and surroundings, crying and begging the parents to immediately organize a procession and the images were carried in them, which at one point were placed by the people in their respective litters.
It seemed more prudent to the parents to encourage and console their parishioners, assuring them that there was no reason for such a horrible horror as the one that had seized them all, and in this the two fervent ministers of the Lord were busy near the church, when they noticed that, as an effect of that continuous commotion of the earth, the sea was moving away from the beach and perhaps leaving dry up to a kilometer and a half of land that was previously covered by the waters, which at the same time were accumulating offshore, forming like a mountain that, when descending in level, was to become a formidable wave, probably being buried under it or perhaps being completely swept away by the town of Tumaco, whose soil is precisely at a lower level than that of the sea.
Terrified then, Father Larrondo rushed towards the church and, reaching the altar, hurriedly plunged the Forms of the sacred ciborium, reserving only the large Host, and immediately afterwards, turned towards the people, carrying the ciborium in one hand. and in another to Jesus Christ in the Sacrament, he exclaimed: “Come on, my children, let’s all go to the beach and may God have mercy on us.”
As if electrified in the presence of Jesus, and before the imposing attitude of his minister, they all marched crying and crying out to His Divine Majesty, have mercy on them. The painting must certainly have been one of the most tender and moving that can be imagined, since Tumaco is a town of many thousands of inhabitants, all of whom were there, with all the terror of a tragic death already engraved on their features beforehand. The divine Savior was also accompanied by the images of the church carried on their shoulders, without the parents having arranged it, only by irresistible impulse of faith and trust of that fervently Christian people.
Little time had passed, when Father Larrondo was already on the beach, and that mountain formed by the waters began to move towards the continent, and the waters advanced like an impetuous flood, without any power on earth being able to counteract that overwhelming wave, which in an instant threatened to destroy the town of Tumaco.
The fervent Recollect was not intimidated, however; rather, he intrepidly descended onto the sand and, placing himself within the ordinary jurisdiction of the waters, at the very moment when the wave was already arriving and the terror and anxiety of the crowd was growing to the last limit, he raised with a firm hand and with a heart full of faith the Sacred Host in view of all, and traced with it in space the sign of the Cross. solemn moment! Horrifyingly sublime spectacle! The wave advances one more step and, without touching the sacred ciborium that remains elevated, comes crashing against the minister of Jesus Christ, reaching the water only up to his waist. Hardly had Father Larrondo realized what had just happened to him, when he first heard Father Julin, who was next to him, and then the whole town en masse, who exclaimed as if mad with emotion: Miracle! ! Miracle!
In effect: as if impelled by an invisible power superior to all power of nature, that wave had been instantly contained, and the enormous mountain of water, which threatened to erase the town of Tumaco from the face of the earth, began its backward movement to disappear, out to sea, returning to recover its ordinary level and natural balance.
The reader already understands how much the joy and holy uproar of that town must have been, whom Jesus in the Sacrament had just freed from an inevitable and horrific catastrophe.
The tears of terror followed the tears of the most intimate joy; The cries of anguish and discouragement were followed by cries of thanks and praise, and loud cheers to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament broke out everywhere and from all the chests.
Father Larrondo then ordered that the Monstrance be brought from the church, and, placing the Sacred Host in it, immediately afterwards, a solemn procession was organized, which went through the streets and surroundings of the town, until His Divine Majesty entered with all pomp and pomp. splendor in his holy temple, from which he had left so poorly and hastily minutes before.
As the said tremor did not take place only in Tumaco, but in a large part of the Pacific coast due to the great damages and disturbances that that wave, rejected in Tumaco, caused in other points of the coast less exposed than this one to being destroyed by the sea, one can calculate the importance of the benefit that Jesus gave to that Christian town, which, as we have said, at a lower level than that of the sea, would probably have disappeared with all its inhabitants. Here is what the reverend missionary Father Fray Bernardino García de la Concepción, who at that time was in the city of Panama, tells us in a letter that we have before us: “In Panama it was at the lowest tide, and suddenly (I saw it) the high tide came and passed the port, entering the market and taking all kinds of boxes, the smaller boats that were dry were thrown a great distance, there having been many misfortunes”.
The event in Tumaco had a great resonance in the world, and several European nations wrote to Father Larrondo, begging him for an account of what happened.
Text by Fr. Pedro Corro, in “Augustinians lovers of the Holy Eucharist”.
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