{"id":2078,"date":"2007-04-16T21:08:17","date_gmt":"2007-04-16T21:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2007\/04\/audrey-santo-rip.html"},"modified":"2007-04-16T21:08:17","modified_gmt":"2007-04-16T21:08:17","slug":"audrey-santo-rip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/04\/audrey-santo-rip.html","title":{"rendered":"Audrey Santo, RIP"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanks to reader Melissa for alerting us to the news that Audrey Santo passed away over the weekend. <\/a><\/p>\n

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After two decades of attracting believers and inspiring others to recommit to their Catholicism, Audrey Marie Santo<\/a> has died. The 23-year-old was in a coma-like state since she nearly drowned in her family’s pool in 1987, and died Saturday in her home of cardio-respiratory failure, according to her family’s obituary issued by a funeral home.<\/p>\n

Visitors to her Worcester home have said statues of Jesus Christ and other religious icons inexplicably oozed oil. Hosts — the wafers representing the body of Christ — reportedly bled. Some said Audrey was able to heal the sick.<\/p>\n

Since her accident at the age of four, her family and friends have held an annual healing Mass either at their home or Christ the King Church, where the family attends services.<\/p>\n

"Immediately after Audrey’s accident I was faced with a choice to either let this event define me by being a blessing, or destroying my family and myself," Audrey’s mother, Linda Santo, said in a statement issued by the family. "I chose the former, and it continues to be a blessing still. I don’t blame God for the accident. I don’t believe God did this, but I do believe God used this event."<\/p>\n

Roman Catholic investigators never established whether Audrey was a miracle worker.<\/p>\n

"We may never fully understand the causes of various paranormal events which have been reported to have occurred in their home," Worcester Bishop Robert McManus said in a statement posted on the diocese’s Web site. "At this time, however, one thing is certain. Everyone who visited their home was touched by the unswaying commitment to life that was exhibited each and every day by the Santo family and by the extensive network of friends and volunteers."<\/p>\n

McManus will attend Audrey’s funeral Mass, scheduled for Wednesday at St. Paul’s Cathedral. In addition to her mother, she is survived by her father and three siblings.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thanks to reader Melissa for alerting us to the news that Audrey Santo passed away over the weekend. After two decades of attracting believers and inspiring others to recommit to their Catholicism, Audrey Marie Santo has died. The 23-year-old was in a coma-like state since she nearly drowned in her family’s pool in 1987, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nAudrey Santo, RIP - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/04\/audrey-santo-rip.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Audrey Santo, RIP - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Thanks to reader Melissa for alerting us to the news that Audrey Santo passed away over the weekend. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. 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