Triei loses its longest-serving brother, the man of the cross and blessed bread. There is one image that the community will forever hold dear to Massimino Mereu. It portrays him standing on the threshold of the church, wearing the white habit of the Confraternity of the Rosary, his hood lowered, his hands clasped around the long shaft of the silver cross. Behind him, the banner with the Madonna and the name "Triei." In front, the square, the procession, the town.
It was with that cross in his hand that Massimino accompanied his community for years. And it is with that same community gathered around him that today, in the village, he will make his final journey. He passed away at the age of 78, at the hospital in Nuoro, where he was a patient. With him goes the longest-serving member of the brotherhood, the last custodian in the village of a tradition that is repeated twice a year and bears the ancient and sweet name of S'Orroseri, the feast of the blessed bread in the name of the Madonna. It was a celebration that Massimino felt was his own, as he felt every event of the brotherhood.
Always present, always in the front row, alongside the devotees. He was never missing. Not out of duty, but out of belonging. Because that black and white habit, for him, wasn't a costume to be worn on solemn occasions: it was the sign of a faith lived in silence, with perseverance, with the discretion of someone who never sought a front-row seat but who, when the cross needed to be carried, was there. His life had long been that of an emigrant. Like many Sardinians of his generation, he had left Triei for Belgium, for work, to build a future far from home. Years of toil, of distance, of letters and summer returns. Then, about twenty years ago, the decision that changed everything: to return.
He returned to Triei and never stopped. He integrated himself into the town's social life with the practical generosity typical of those who return to stay. The Pro Loco was at the forefront, along with all the associations, the confraternity. Wherever a hand was needed, Massimino was there. Wherever there was organization, assembly, guidance, and presence, he was there. With his passing, the Confraternity of the Rosary is left more alone. There are no other brothers in the town. The only one who remains lives on the Peninsula, far away. The devotees remain, the Madonna del Rosario remains, S'Orroseri remains. The blessed bread that continues to be passed from hand to hand twice a year remains, like an uninterrupted gesture of love.
Today, at the funeral, Triei will accompany him as he accompanied his fellow villagers for twenty years: with presence, with respect, with affection. Because Massimino wasn't a man of many words. He was a man of presence. And presence, when it's missing, is felt. Now the silver cross will remain there, waiting. But those who knew him know that, when he returns to S'Orroseri, he too will be in that procession. No longer with his hands clasped around the crosspole, but in the step of one who carried that cross with dignity until the end, and in the blessed bread that will continue to breathe the fragrance of faith and of the village.