Italian nun decorated with prestigious order of merit for helping lepers

By Park Sae-jin Posted : December 29, 2016, 15:47 Updated : December 29, 2016, 15:47

[Yonhap Photo]


Lidia Tallone, a 73-year-old Italian nun, was honored Thursday with a prestigious order of merit for her sacrifice caring for South Korean lepers for more than four decades.

On public recommendations, the nun received the Moran Medal in a government ceremony, in reward for her 48-year-long work to help lepers in their village in Gochang, about 230 kilometers (142 miles) southwest of Seoul. At the age of 19, she entered a nunnery in Italy and joined a missionary to start her sacred profession by caring for orphans.

In 1968, she arrived in Gochang to treat dozens of leprosy patients who had formed a helpless and isolated community called "Hoam Village". Her life there was not easy as South Korea in the 1960s was still in economic difficulties.

Tallone, who is still caring for some 10 lepers, vowed to lead a life helping and treating and helping them for the rest of her life.

"There was no remedy drug at that time, and I barely cured the patients with a small amount of a drug that I had obtained from German relief agencies," she said in a press interview in July.

 
 
 
기사 이미지 확대 보기
닫기