By Evan Triantafilidis
Sentinel Correspondent
Celebrating its Italian heritage, St. Roch’s Church held its annual “St. Roch’s Feast” from Aug. 12-16, complete with live entertainment, carnival rides, games, dancing and its famous “pizza fritta.”
Walking through the carnival, residents were reminded why the church celebrates this time of year with a feast, as they passed by a statue of St. Roch dressed in dollar bills that people pinned to the statue for good fortune or as a gift to their patron saint.
“There is a group that came from a southern Italian town called Morra di Sanctis, and their patron saint, St. Roch, is the patron saint here, too,” said Matthew Mauriello, the pastor of the church since 2009. “Now, this is the Italian festival on this side of the Atlantic. It’s a continued tradition.”
The early group of settlers gathered in mid-August yearly to celebrate the feast day of their patron saint.
Angelina Birdsell, a lifelong resident of Chickahominy, says she’s helped at nearly every Feast the church has held, and remembers when the statue of St. Roch would be marched up and down the streets of her neighborhood. She couldn’t resist speaking about another festival favorite: the pizza fritta—fried dough topped with powdered sugar or tomato sauce.
“There’s always the pizza fritta,” Birdsell said when asked about her favorite part of the celebration. “I get to see all my friends that I haven’t seen in years, too.”
Current volunteers helped in different booths serving food, drinks, and handing out raffle tickets.
John Calabro and his daughter sat at a table just in front of a 2015 Jeep Wrangler selling raffle tickets for the car and three other gift card prizes. Calabro, once a volunteer in the pizza fritta booth, says some things have changed over the years, but it’s always a fun time at the Feast.
“If we get good weather, people come from all over,” Calabro said. “I even ran the beer booth at one time, when we still had it. Now things have changed somewhat. We aren’t using the [adjacent] field this year, everything has become modernized and you always have to be careful of what you’re doing today.”
A beer and wine garden was available across the street from the booth section of the festival for adults.
Food was supplied from Vinny’s Lunch in Port Chester, and desserts were catered by Fairway’s baked goods and coffee booth.
Live entertainment could be heard Wednesday through Saturday, with bands “The Bookends,” “The Breakers,” Francisco Castiglione (JFC Music), and local talent performing.
Activities for kids included sand art, face painting, pony rides and carnival rides.
The final day of the celebration started with a procession led by the mayor of Morra de Sanctis Italy, Dr. Pietro G. Mariani. It was the first time in the church’s history that the mayor of the Italian city has traveled to lead the event’s procession.
Following the procession, a noon mass was held in Italian at the church, putting a close to the five-day Feast that has served as an end-of-summer party for residents and a celebration for the local Italian community for decades.
