Prayers proved fatal for an Italian priest who plunged through a chapel floor after asking God to help his ailing mother.
The well-known Roman priest travelled to pray with his mother in their country chapel at Palestrina near Rome Wednesday night.
He broke off to change the flowers and the floor suddenly gave way as a previously undetected Roman well collapsed. Father Claudio Rossi, 61, a Jesuit who was vice-rector at Rome University, plunged 100 feet (35 metres) to his death.
His 90-year-old mother was unharmed.
Palestrina, a medieval hill town east of Rome, is famous as the birthplace of Renaissance composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.
