St. Mary's Italian Church

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St. Mary's started as a mission in 1914, by Rev. Pietro Maria Piemonte. The mission operated for four years above the fish market on Front Street, before being named an official parish in 1918. Rev. Piemonte started the effort to construct a new church on Mission Street. Many parishioners helped build the church, and donated their gold jewelry to melt and help make a bell for the church. The parishioners were immigrants, poor and struggling, most living in the section of town called "Little Italy." Rev. Piemonte died in 1945, and Monsignor Salvatore Screnci replaced him. This was a time of great growth in the church. They remodeled the church with Italian marble and had artists paint murals on walls and ceilings. The outside grotto was also built as well as a youth center. The Boston Archdiocese closed the parish in 2003, citing a shortage of priests. The Salem Mission, a homeless shelter bought the church to use as a shelter. St. Mary's bronze church bell was rededicated, after being removed from the church in 1981, along with a plaque bearing the names of the eight men from the church who died in World War II They now sit in a new courtyard, next to the Christopher Columbus Society hall on Endicott Street.

See Also

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