Italian Army WW1 Field Altar

[Hedley Malloch]

 

I visited Rome last week and visited the Vatican Museums. Exhibited there is an WW1 Italian Army’s Field Altar which saw service on the Italian Front. It was given to the Pope Francis by the Italian Army when a Mass celebrated in Redipuglia Military Cemetery in September 2014, as part of the centenary commemorations. Among the gifts he received was the discharge certificate given to his paternal grandfather, Giovanni Carlo Begolio, a radio-telegraph operator and rifleman, who fought on the Isonzo River. The Pope recalled, ‘I heard many painful stories from the lips of my grandfather … and once the war was over, with the Italian economy in difficulty, he decided to emigrate to Argentina.'

Apologies for the quality of the photos - the exhibit was behind glass.

If you want to know more about this front of the Great War, then the latest addition to Mat Dixon's podcast 'Footsteps of the Fallen' is a talk between Matt and Tom Isitt on the Italian Front. I highly recommend it.