Pray for Peace in the Middle East: at St. Anthony of Padua Church, Social after.

Please join us this month for a very special meetup as we pray for peace in the Middle East with a Mass at St. Anthony of Padua Church in SoHo (or if you prefer, the South Village). St. Anthony of Padua is the patron saint of the Custody of the Holy Land. We join with the Franciscan Friars serving the Holy Land in praying for peace, restraint, the de-escalation of violence and the protection of all civilians.

This will be our first Saturday/Sunday Mass at St. Anthony's. We previously celebrated the mid-week feast day there in 2017.

St. Anthony's was the first Catholic parish established in New York for Italian immigrants and only the second Italian parish in the entire US. It was originally set up as a mission church (to newly-arrived Italian immigrants) of St. Vincent de Paul parish, then on nearby Canal Street, which catered to French-speaking Catholics. The original church opened in 1859 in the former Sullivan Street Methodist Episcopal Church at 149 Sullivan Street. In 1866, St. Anthony's was established as its own parish, administered by the Franciscan Friars, who still run the parish to this day.

In 1888, the current church opened up the block at 155 Sullivan Street after two years of construction, built in the Italian Renaissance style by Italian immigrants, and featuring an Italian marble altar. St. Anthony's is the oldest existing Italian parish in the US. The church is known as New York's Italian cathedral.

The friary behind the church on Thompson Street caught fire in November 1938. Father Richard Fagan, a 27-year-old priest, ran back into the friary to save two other priests, before getting trapped and having to jump from the burning building. He later died of his injuries in hospital. Father Fagan Park on MacDougal Street is named after him.

St. Frances Cabrini (Mother Cabrini), who dedicated her life to serving poor Italian immigrants, once taught in the parish's religious education program.

Italian immigrants and their descendants have mostly moved on from the neighborhood but the church has served beatniks, musicians, artists, actors and the rich and famous in more modern times. It has also been featured in plenty of movies set in New York including The Godfather 2, Moonstruck, Men in Black, Fatso, The Pope of Greenwich Village and Confessions of a Shopaholic.

Mass is at 5 p.m. We'll figure out the social as we get closer. In the meantime, click HERE to make a donation to Catholic Relief Services and Caritas to support those impacted by the conflict in Gaza and elsewhere in the Holy Land.