Yvan Colonna died on March 21 following a violent attack by a co-detainee. His funeral is being held this Friday afternoon in Cargèse, his family village.
Many of them, several thousand, made the trip to Cargèse this Friday. A silent crowd, made up of relatives, elected officials – in particular from the nationalist movement -, and citizens, for some who arrived in the morning, came to pay a last tribute to Yvan Colonna.
The funeral convoy left Ajaccio around noon, and arrived shortly after 2:15 p.m. in the village. The hearse first made a first stop at the Colonna family estate, for a more intimate meditation, reserved for those closest to you.
Thirty minutes later, and less than twenty minutes from the initially announced time of the mass, at 3 p.m., the vehicle set off again to the restaurant St-Jean, in the center of Cargèse.
The coffin, covered with the Corsican flag, was then carried by his relatives, in rotation, through the streets of the village. A slow, calm procession to the Latin Church.
The religious service began at 3:40 p.m. and ended a little less than an hour later, at 4:30 p.m. In front of the church, still, streamers fluttering in the wind, and thousands of people massed, forming a circle all around the coffin.
Yvan Colonna died Monday March 21 at the northern hospital in Marseille, after three weeks of post-anoxic coma. The shepherd was the victim of a violent attack by a radicalized co-detainee, Franck Elong-Abé, which occurred at the central house in Arles on March 2.