St. Anthony Di Padova History

   The history of the St. Anthony DiPadova Society traces its roots back to the Grays Ferry section of Philadelphia in the early parts of the twentieth century where many of the founders of the Society originated and previously immigrated. As the area of Southwest Philadelphia was being developed many first-generation Italian immigrants began to move into the newly developing area from Grays Ferry and other parts of South Philadelphia. As a result of the Italian community beginning to build in Southwest Philadelphia, the St. Anthony DiPadova Society was formally incorporated and born. The Society was founded by 21 first generation Italian immigrants whose names are:

                                                                                  Pio Alessandrino

                                                                                  Salvatore Caputo 

                                                                                  Feliciano A. Cerone

                                                                                  Francesco Cerbo

                                                                                  Tobia D’Alessandro

                                                                                  Teodoro Dezzi

                                                                                  Vincenzo Dezzi

                                                                                  Matteo DiGrazia

                                                                                  Michele DiGrazia

                                                                                  Matteo DiMauro

                                                                                  Gaetano Giannotti

                                                                                  Pasquale Grandizio

                                                                                  Rocco Iannelli

                                                                                  Amato Iuliano

                                                                                  Pasquale Laucello

                                                                                  Antonio Liberato

                                                                                  Vito Luviso

                                                                                  Vincenzo Meola

                                                                                  Luigi Papa

                                                                                  Pasquale Pepe

                                                                                  Giuseppe Petrosini

The purpose of the Society was for its members to gather fraternally in a civic spirit to foster and propagate fraternal principles which will help and aide it’s members in case of death or disability. These principles were important to these first-generation immigrants as they were foreign to this new land (US), foreign to the new area where they wanted to settle and raise their families, wanted to maintain their customs and traditions which they brought from the old country.  Members would pay dues; the dues would assist them and their families during stressful times as death and sickness with them and/or their families. One facet of this was in the celebration of their Feast Days. To this end the St. Anthony Society’s Charter required all members to participate in preparation and celebration of the Feast Day in honor of their Patron, St. Anthony DiPadova. Originally, this celebration was held at the Catholic church of St. Barnabas. This, from the years 1922 to 1932. Replete with Italian Marching Bands, music, Solemn Mass and Procession, the St. Anthony DiPadova Society began to make its mark in the area. However, as more and more first-generation Catholic Italians moved into the area, the Italian Catholic Community became desperately in need of an Italian Catholic Church. The Archdiocese realized the need for this and in 1932, dedicated the new Catholic Parish of Our Lady of Loreto. The original Church located at the corner of 63rd & Grays Avenue, eventually moved in 1938 to 6214 Grays, close to the burgeoning Italian Community in the area, where a new church was built. 

The St. Anthony DiPadova Society subsequently moved its religious celebration to Our Lady of Loreto Parish and remained there for many years. Over the years, the St. Anthony Celebration assisted and guided Our Lady of Loreto’s first and second Pastor’s, Father Matthew Amateis and Father Ildebrando Schifalacqua to raise money from their Feast Day celebrations and built their first church, as mentioned above, and subsequently, school, convent and new rectory in 1959/1960 located in the same area as the church. The Celebration of the Feast of St. Anthony was and still is the biggest mainstay of the Society. Over the years, the Celebration was incorporated together with a Parish Carnival at Our Lady of Loreto. The Carnival originally lasted nine days with the St. Anthony Celebration being held the last two days of the Carnival. However, during the building period of the area in the 1940’s through the 1960’s, the Feast Celebration brought more entertainment into the carnival every evening and further, brought as many as 10,000 people to the area for the last day/night of the event, which included Mass, procession, band concerts and the finale & fireworks. The Parish Church of Our Lady of Loreto closed in June, 2003 and since then the Feast of St. Anthony has found its home at various parishes in Delaware County including most recently at St. Mary Magdalen Church in Media, Pa. Membership and participation of membership has increased over the years and the St. Anthony Society continues with new and improved activities each year which now include, Italian Nite, held each March, Golf Outing in September and of course the Feast of St. Anthony, still held in June. In addition, money raised for all the events are distributed to the Church where the celebration of the Feast is held, other Churches in the area, Seminaries and the needy during the holidays. We continue to uphold the tenets of the Society and its members and are fortunate to be able to keep the rich and unique tradition of celebrating St. Anthony to the community.