| Our Lady of Pompeii Church | |
|---|---|
| Shrine Church of Our Lady of Pompeii | |
 The church viewed from the neighboringFather Demo Square in 2008 | |
  Our Lady of Pompeii Church  Our Lady of Pompeii Church | |
| 40°43′50″N74°0′10″W / 40.73056°N 74.00278°W /40.73056; -74.00278 | |
| Location | South Village,New York City, United States |
| Denomination | Catholic Church |
| Religious institute | Scalabrini Fathers |
| Website | olpnyc |
| History | |
| Status | Parish church,national parish,shrine |
| Founded | 1892 (1892) |
| Founder | Pietro Bandini |
| Dedication | Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii |
| Dedicated | October 7, 1928 |
| Architecture | |
| Architect(s) | Matthew Del Gaudio Antonio D'Ambrosio |
| Style | Romanesque Revival |
| Groundbreaking | 1926 |
| Completed | September 1928 |
| Administration | |
| Archdiocese | Archdiocese of New York |
Our Lady of Pompeii Church, or more formally, theShrine Church of Our Lady of Pompeii,[1] is aCatholicparish church located in theSouth Village neighborhood ofManhattan,New York City, in the United States. The church is staffed byScalabrini Fathers, while the Our Lady of Pompeii School is staffed byApostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is located across fromFather Demo Square, which is named for the church's third pastor,Antonio Demo.
The church was founded in 1892 as anational parish to serveItalian-American immigrants who settled inGreenwich Village, eventually becoming the American counterpart to theShrine of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompei in Italy and ashrine in its own right. The church has resided at its present location since 1926, when construction on its current edifice began. While it has remained a largely Italian American parish, the church has come to incorporate many other immigrant groups.
The parish of Our Lady of Pompeii was founded in 1892. The origins of the parish lie in the arrival of FatherPietro Bandini, an ItalianJesuit priest,[2] in New York City in 1890. His purpose was to establish a chapter of the Saint Raphael Society for the Protection ofItalian Immigrants, an organization that sought to defend Italian immigrants fromusury and labor exploitation. Bandini purchased a building at 113Waverly Place to use its first-floorstorefront as achapel for the Society.[3][4] He named it the Our Lady of Pompeii chapel, in honor of theVirgin Mary under her title ofOur Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii.[5] The first Mass was said in the chapel on May 8, 1892.[4] In addition to his spiritual ministry, Bandini assisted new immigrants with legal matters,assimilating to the United States, and finding work.[6]
The chapel was established within the territorial parish boundaries ofSt. Joseph's Church, whose pastor was Fr. Denis O'Flynn. He vehemently protested the establishment of another church near his, several having already been erected, that might draw parishioners away from his congregation. However, he also refused to allow Italians admittance to his church, which was mostlyIrish in composition. To allay O'Flynn's fears of poaching parishioners, Bandini posted a notice on the entrance to his chapel that it was to serve only Italian Catholics. O'Flynn, nonetheless, accused Bandini of stealing parishioners before the archdiocese'schancery office within three months of the chapel's establishment.[7]
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Many immigrants who arrived from the northwestern Italian town ofChiavari to settle inGreenwich Village attended Our Lady of Pompeii chapel. Bandini requested that the community be elevated to the status of aparish in theArchdiocese of New York. The location of the church changed in 1895 when Bandini began renting a building at 214Sullivan Street. It had originally been built in 1810 for an African AmericanBaptist church and had more recently housed the Bethel Methodist Colored Church. ArchbishopMichael Corrigan officially declared the community a parish in 1895.[4] Rather than a territorial parish, Our Lady of Pompeii was anational parish, which served an ethnicity, namely Italians, rather than a geographic population. In this capacity, it became the second national parish in New York City for Italians, followingSt. Anthony of Padua Church.[8] In 1896, Bandini left the church forSunnyside Plantation inArkansas to minister to the Italian workers there, and went on with the workers to found the city ofTontitown.[6] Upon his departure, several unidentified priests impressed upon Archbishop Corrigan that he should close down the parish, but he decided against it.[7]
Bandini was succeeded aspastor of the church by Father Francesco Zaboglio in 1896, who held the role for only a year. In 1897, he was badly injured in agas explosion in the church basement, which killed two other men employed by the parish and damaged the church building. With Zaboglio's retirement and return to Italy,[4] FatherAntonio Demo, a man prominent in theItalian-American community became the next pastor; he would serve in this position until 1935.[9] While at the time of its founding, more than 80 percent of the church's parishioners hailed fromNorthern Italy, many of whom came specifically from the region ofLiguria, by 1898Southern Italians constituted a plurality of the congregation.[10] On March 7, 1898, the parish of Our Lady of Pompeii was legallyincorporated.[11]
The church on Sullivan Street was subsequently destroyed by fire, and the congregation relocated to aGreek Revival building at 210Bleecker Street on May 8, 1898.[4] The building had been originally commissioned in 1836 by aUnitarian Universalist church. Since 1883 it had been occupied bySt. Benedict the Moor Catholic Church whose African American parish was moving north in Manhattan.[6] Around this time, the parish received permission fromBartolo Longo, the founder of theShrine of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pomepi in Italy, to promote itself as the Americanshrine to Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii.[12] There is some indication that by around 1899 tension had begun to build between Our Lady of Pompeii and St. Anthony of Padua Church. While the latter was the older of the two Italian national parishes in the area, the Italians took a liking to the Scalabrinians over theFranciscans (who ran St. Anthony's). For this reason, Our Lady of Pompeii's membership equaled that of St. Anthony of Padua within ten years of the former's founding.[7]
The parish was impacted by theTriangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911, which took place nearby. Father Demo was active in consoling the mourning families.[6] By 1917, the number of parishioners had grown to more than 20,000.[4] For a time,Mother Cabrini taught at Our Lady of Pompeii.[9]
In 1923, the City of New York decided to extendSixth Avenue southward through the area occupied by the church and several dozen other buildings. Usingeminent domain, the city seized, condemned, and eventually demolished the structures. Before demolition, Demo formed committees of parishioners to organize moving the parish to a new location. The pastor and the committees began purchasing land on the corner of Bleecker Street, eventually acquiring house numbers 17 through 25. There, they built a new church building, arectory that opened in 1928, aparochial school that opened in 1930 staffed by theMissionary Zelatrices of the Sacred Heart of Jesus,[11] and aconvent that opened in the 1950s.[4] Father Demo personally selectedMatthew W. Del Gaudio to be the architect of the church.[9]
The existing buildings on the land were cleared, and ground was broken for the new church in 1926. OnNew Year's Day 1928, during construction, a 3-year-old girl named Zita Triglia was killed when a 10-foot-long beam fell from the belfry scaffolding, knocking her from her father's arms. The church was completed in September of that year. It wasdedicated on October 7, 1928,[13] thefeast day of Our Lady of the Rosary, in asolemn mass said by CardinalPatrick Hayes with more than 2,000 worshipers in attendance.[9]
Father Demo was recalled toRome in 1933 and died three years later; in his stead, John Marchegiani served as acting pastor and then pastor, and eventually asprocurator. In 1933 American-born Italians represented a majority of the parish for the first time.[10] When Marchegiani was recalled to Rome in 1937, he was succeeded by Ugo Cavicchi. He advanced the school, decorated the interior of the church, and welcomed theSociety of Saint Vincent de Paul, which assisted the poor and taught hundreds of Italian immigrants to take theAmerican citizenship exam. During Father Mario Albanesi's pastorship from 1952 to 1964, the church property expanded with the purchase of houses on Carmine and Leroy Streets.[4]
Today, the church stands at 25 Carmine Street,[14] at the northern corner of the intersection with Bleecker Street.[15] It is directly across fromFather Demo Square, which is located on the eastern corner of Carmine and Bleecker Streets.[16] The church is staffed by priests who areMissionaries of St. Charles Borromeo (Scalabrini Fathers) and the school is staffed by sisters of theApostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.[6] While the church was founded for Italian immigrants and remained a parish primarily for Italian Americans for most of its history, in recent times its parishioners have included a range of immigrant groups. This is reflected by the fact that Mass is offered in English,Italian,Spanish,Portuguese, andTagalog.[13] Since its second expansion in 2010, Our Lady of Pompeii Church has been located within the Greenwich Village Historic District.[17]
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Del Gaudio's façade facing Carmine Street is built oflimestone, while beige brick faces Bleecker Street. In total, the edifice cost over $1 million to construct,[12] equivalent to $18.3 million in 2024.[18] On the exterior of theRomanesque Revival church,[12] the building is accented by largeCorinthian columns supporting a closed pediment over the entrance and abalustrade along the roofline. The façade is topped with an asymmetrically placed,[15] three-storycampanile enclosed by a copperdome and afinial cross.[9] Inside this campanile, a newcarillon was installed in 1988.[19] It was Del Gaudio's intention to draw from theRomanesque style common to parishioners' homes and churches in Italy. For this reason he included shallow front steps, a flat façade that was close to the street, the domedsanctuary,[12] and acampanile on the church,[5] modeled after that of theShrine of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompei.[13] On the roofline is apediment topped by anacroterion statue ofSt. Charles Borromeo.[12]
The interior of the church was decorated in theRomanesque Revival style,[13] between 1934 and 1937, by Antonio D'Ambrosio, the founder of D'Ambrosio Ecclesiastical Art Studios.[12] Thenave is lined with polished marble Corinthian columns,[9] above which is afrieze bearing aLatin inscription of theHail Mary in golden letters. Above the frieze, within thebarrel vault of the ceiling,[13] are painted depictions of theJoyful Mysteries of the Rosary on the right side of the nave, and depictions of theSorrowful Mysteries on the left side. On the ceiling are depictions of theGlorious Mysteries.[12]
The marblereredos contains a painting that is an exact replica of one in the Shrine of Our Lady in Pompei. It was given to the church in 1895 as a gift byAnnie Leary.[12] The painting is situated within a Romanesque arch and depicts the Virgin Mary holding the childJesus who is handing arosary toSt. Dominic, while his mother hands a rosary toSt. Catherine of Siena. This painting originally adorned the church's 210 Bleecker Street building and was cut and moved to its present location with the construction of the church.[12] It was before this painting that many Italian emigrant parishioners wouldpray for safe travels before voyaging back to Naples or pray in thanksgiving upon returning to America.[13]
To the left of the mural in theapsidal dome is a depiction of theChurch Penitent, represented by souls inpurgatory awaiting salvation. To the right is a depiction of theChurch Triumphant, specifically the saints inheaven.[12] Beneath the mural in the apse is another frieze that bears the Latin inscription:[13]
NON ARMA · NON DUCES · SED VIRGO MARIA ROSARII FECIT NOS VICTORES
(Neither arms nor leaders, but the Virgin Mary of the Rosary made us victors)
The largest painted accent in the interior is themural in thesemi-dome above the altar, which was created in 1937 and illustrates theChurch Militant. The mural depicts the Virgin Mary and Jesus as a child in her lap, as she stands on a cloud, in front of the Sun. Mary is presenting St. Dominic, who is holding and contemplating thecross, with a rosary. St. Catherine of Siena looks on from the distance, asangels fly about them. The lower right corner of the mural, against a background of sky and sea, depicts agalleon in the navalBattle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571. The miraculous Spanish victory was attributed to divine intercession in response to prayer to Our Lady of the Rosary. One of the angels is handing a rosary to a soldier, which is depicted as the decisive weapon in the battle. Imagery of the Shrine of Our lady of the Rosary inPompei, Italy is present above the battle, including the shrine's campanile. Thereligious are tending to poor immigrants, and a woman receives a rosary from aFranciscan friar, symbolizing that the Franciscans fromSt. Anthony of Padua Church were the first ministers to the Italian immigrants in New York. The mural also depicts St. Charles Borromeo in red, who is the patron saint of the Scalabrinians, and BlessedGiovanni Battista Scalabrini, their founder, as a bishop in white, their founder. Also visible isSt. Martin de Porres holding a basket of roses, acknowledging the African American community that worshiped at Our Lady of Pompeii's previous church. This mural was removed in the 1970s, and replaced with less dramatic imagery consistent with the persuasion of theSecond Vatican Council.[20] It was later recreated by Antonio D'Ambrosio's son, Anthony D'Ambrosio, based on his father's original drawings.[12][13]
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Work on thestained glass windows that enclose eitheraisle began in 1928 and continued into the 1940s.[12] They show scenes from the lives of the saints, thecatechism, and theGospel; in particular, the saints are shown in such a way that illustrates each of the Beatitudes with which they are associated. Individuals depicted in the windows include:St. Stephen, St. Catherine of Siena,St. John the Baptist,St. Peter,St. Paul, theFour Evangelists, andPope Leo XIII withMother Cabrini. Additional stained glass windows were added over thenarthex in 1986. They depict theExodus from Egypt, theHoly Family,[13]Christopher Columbus giving thanks for reaching America, andEllis Island, symbolizing the parish's immigrant and Italian heritage.[12]
In addition to architectural furnishings, the interior also contains a significant amount of statuary. To one side of the entrance is a shrine to Mother Cabrini, the patroness saint of immigrants, and a statue of Jesus Nazareno, which is revered byFilipino pilgrims to the Pompei shrine in Italy. Additionally, there is a statue ofSan Gaetano that was gifted by devotees, a statue of Saint Jude that was bequeathed in 1955, a bust of Giovanni Scalabrini from 1955, and statues ofSt. Rose of Lima,St. Lucy, andPadre Pio. There is also a statue of St. Gerard that had resided in the maternity ward ofSt. Vincent's Hospital and was given as a gift by theSisters of Charity upon the hospital's closing. The oldest statues in the church are those of the Blessed Mother andSt. John the Evangelist, which date to the 1880s. The statues ofSt. Joseph and theSacred Heart date to at least as early as 1909.[12]
Thepipe organ at the rear of the church, designed byGeorge Kilgen & Son, was installed at the time the church was built, incorporating many old pipes that may have been taken from the 1918 organ of the previous church at 214 Bleecker Street. It was expanded over the years, at one point incorporating pipes from a 1928 organ in the Immaculate Conception Church inTrenton, New Jersey.[21]
The followingpriests, in chronological order, served aspastor of the church:[4]
