The telltale white coffin of a child stood out in the row of caskets. The story of the little girl it carried added to Italy’s heartbreak.

During a funeral Mass Saturday for 35 of the 291 people killed by the earthquake that ravaged central Italy, Bishop Giovanni D’Ercole recalled witnessing the recovery of 9-year-old Giulia Rinaldo.

Around 6 p.m. on Wednesday — 15 hours after the quake struck — D’Ercole went to recover a crucifix from the church in the town of Pescara Del Tronto. Steps away, firefighters were digging out Giulia and her 4-year-old sister, Giorgia.

The older girl was over the younger. Giulia was dead, and Giorgia was alive. “They were in an embrace,” D’Ercole said.

Massimo Caico, the firefighter who pulled the girls out, told an Italian newspaper the older girl’s body created a pocket of air that let Giorgia survive. “Maybe they
hugged each other in their sleep or in fear, and the body of Giulia saved Giorgia,” Caico said.

Italian news reports said Giorgia is in shock and barely speaking, asking only for her doll and her mother, who was also injured.

The child was one of the last survivors rescued. There have been no reports of anyone found alive since late Wednesday.

D’Ercole spoke as he stood beneath the crucifix he recovered that evening. It hung in a community gym being used as a makeshift chapel in the town of Ascoli Piceno as Italy held a national day of mourning for those killed by the quake that toppled three towns.

“Don’t be afraid to cry out your suffering — but please do not lose courage,” the bishop told the mourners, many of them injured, who wept and held each other.

“Only together can we rebuild our houses and our churches,” D’Ercole said. “Together, above all, we will be able to restore life to our communities. The village bells will ring once more.”

Italian President Sergio Mattarella, Premier Matteo Renzi and other leaders were among the mourners. At least 400 people were injured in the quake.

With Post Wire Services