On Saturday, May 21, Pope Francis met with Cardinal Marcello Semararo, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and announced that Blessed Giovanni Battista Scalabrini (1839-1905) is to become Saint Giovanni Battista at a future consistory; the end of the formal process for sainthood.

Battista served as Bishop of Piacenza, Italy from January 28, 1876, until his death on June 1, 1905. He is widely referred to as the “father of migrants,” a title bestowed upon him by Saint John Paull II when he served as Pope and declared him Venerable on Aug. 16, 1987.

Blessed Battista, beatified on November 9, 1997 by Saint John Paul II, will attain the status of Saint later this fall.

As bishop, Battista founded the Congregations of the Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo, known familiarly as the “Scalabrinian Fathers.”

In addition, he founded the Missionary Sisters of St. Charles in the late 1800s. The Scalabrinian Fathers and the Sisters of Saint Charles ministered to numerous people born in Europe and immigrated to North and South America. More specifically, the Scalabrinians tended to those Italians who came to the western hemisphere including to Utica and its St. Mary of Mount Carmel Parish.

The Italian colony’s first pastor in a Catholic Church in Utica was Rev. Antonio Castelli.

Castelli, born in Ausonia, Italy, in 1829, came to Utica in 1884. He served first as the Chaplain of St. Vincent’s Industrial School, then at St. Agnes Church, and ultimately as Monsignor James M. Lynch’s assistant at St. John’s.

Msgr. Lynch offered an old school building on Catherine Street to Castelli to minister to the Italian community, and it became the temporary home and meeting place of the eventual St. Mary of Mount Carmel congregation. The school is where, in 1892, the organization of the parish began. By 1895, with approximately 200 Italian families between Park Avenue, Jay Street, Catherine Street, and Clay Street, the process of building a religious home started.

The church’s first two trustees – Salvatore Pelletieri and Antonio Sisti – assisted in finally incorporating the church on July 21, 1895, under the blessing of, and approval by, Bishop Patrick Ludden. Ludden named the new church “Santa Maria di Monte Carmelo” most probably due to the number of immigrants from Laurenzana who resided in Utica at that time. Saint Mary of Mount Carmel was the Laurenzanese’s patron saint.

Frank Brindisi began to raise funds for the erection of the church structure. With enough money raised, Ciriaco Nudo and his father dug the basement of the new church. Donato DeVito followed by starting the church’s cellar on April 23, 1896.

Soon afterwards, though, Alessandro Pacelli replaced Pelletieri as trustee, and the church endured some tough financial troubles. These circumstances slowed down the erection of the church — but did not stop it. Groundbreaking for the new parish took place in April 1896, and Castelli, now recognized as Mount Carmel’s first official pastor, celebrated the new church’s first Mass on Dec. 20, 1896, in the completed basement.

Castelli welcomed Italian prelate Bishop Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, soon-to-be Saint Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, to assist in laying the cornerstone of the new church on Sept. 15, 1901. A simple mass and confirmation of nearly 800 young people in the area occurred in lieu of a grand celebration, however, due to the deteriorating death of President William McKinley, shot nine days prior by assassin Leon Czolgosz.