Nearly every resident of the small Sicilian winegrowing village of Sant'Alfio last week joined the procession up the fuming, rumbling mountain. Praying, singing hymns and carrying relics of their patron saints, the villagers advanced to within a few yards of the glowing, smoking wall of lava. As his flock knelt before the threatening stream, Sant'Alfio's parish priest, Don Francesco Parisi, tilted his head skyward and implored God to "send away this menace from us and from our homes."
Ten minutes after the somber procession began, however, the angry mountain responded with another explosion...
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