A feast fit for a saint

It's time to honor a beloved saint with food and fun.

And we don't mean St. Patrick.

So put aside your celebration for the well-known saint - your shamrocks, green beer and corned beef and cabbage - and get the party started for St. Joseph.

To Italian-Americans, he's the saint to celebrate in March, and they do it with gusto.

"For those blessed with Italian culture, St. Joseph's Day is a party," said Paul Wicker, priest of Holy Apostles Catholic Church in Colorado Springs.

St. Joseph's Day usually takes place on March 19, but the Catholic Church rescheduled it for today so it didn't conflict with Holy Week, the sacred days between Palm Sunday and Easter. While all churches will offer special prayers during today's St. Joseph's Day Mass, Holy Apostles will go further this evening with a feast to the saint that has centuries-old roots in Sicily.

A handful of the church's Italian-American parishioners have prepared Italian dishes, an altar table brimming with Italian cookies and cakes, and a short play.

They've had a blast preparing meals and desserts, but they don't forget why they're doing it.

"The significance of the dinner is to feed the poor," said Paul Granato, 76, stirring marinara sauce in the church's kitchen recently. "All the monies go to the poor."

The altar table and dinner are part of a longtime Sicilian tradition. According to legend, sufferers of a severe drought in Sicily during the Middle Ages received rain after praying to St. Joseph.

In thanksgiving to the saint, Sicilians built a three-tiered altar, representing the Trinity, and served dinner to the poor on St. Joseph's Day.

The tradition was brought to America in the 19th century, when Sicilian immigrants settled in cities such as Buffalo, N.Y., Chicago, New York and New Orleans.

With a Sicilian population in the thousands, New Orleans is the American stronghold of the feast, with dozens of the area's Catholic churches participating.

It's much less common in Colorado Springs, which has a small Italian population. Of Holy Apostles' 2,400 families, only a couple dozen are Italian-American, and it may be the only local Catholic church that goes all out for the feast.

Six years ago, Linda Visinsky, who was raised in New Orleans and whose grandparents lived in Sicily, introduced the tradition to Holy Apostles. Last year, the dinner raised $2,500 for needy families.

"Through St. Joseph's Day, I'm working to help others," Visinsky, 62, said.

The centerpiece of the 240-seat dinner, which sold out weeks ago, is the three-tiered altar table covered in white cloth and decorated with flowers, fruits and Italian desserts. Crosses, a chalice, St. Joseph's staff and a rosary all made of bread - adorn the table. On the top tier is a statue of St. Joseph.

Because the feast takes place during Lent, the dishes are meatless.

Cheeses are also forbidden, so sprinkled on the food instead are bread crumbs, representing the sawdust of Joseph the carpenter.

A short play in which children are twice denied a room at an inn, only to be allowed entrance at the altar, is part of the celebration.

Wicker said the event's message is hospitality - helping those in need.

It harks back to the story of Joseph and Mary being denied a room at the inn, followed by Mary giving birth to Jesus in a manger.

"They were not given hospitality, and Jesus became hospitality" by helping others, Wicker said.

One of the cooks for the feast is Sam Goia, whose specialties are cabbage patties, frittata di asparagi and pasta with mushroom cream sauce. He learned the recipes from his Italian parents in Buffalo.

"Each of us brings to the dinner the traditions we grew up with," said Goia, 47.

Visinsky heads up the group making Italian cookies and cakes.

She follows recipes used by her family for decades.

For her, St. Joseph is special among the litany of Catholic saints.

"He was a silent, strong protector of the holy family," Visinsky said. "We can learn from him and pray to him for how we should raise our children."

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0367 or mark.barna@gazette.com

ST. JOSEPH VS. ST. PATRICK

Because St. Patrick's Day gets a heap of publicity in popular culture, many Catholics think it has the same importance liturgically as St. Joseph's Day.

Not true.

Case in point: This year, both saints' days fall during Holy Week, the sacred time between Palm Sunday and Easter. The Vatican dropped the Mass on St. Patrick's Day but rescheduled the St. Joseph's Day Mass to today.

Why? St. Joseph's Day is more important.

St. Joseph, as husband of Mary and earthly father of Christ, is a bigger deal than Patrick's bringing Catholicism to Ireland, Catholic leaders say.

In the U.S., the Catholic Church considers St. Joseph's Day a solemnity, which means prayers to St. Joseph must be said during Mass. St. Patrick's Day is a memorial, of lesser value. Priests have the discretion not to include prayers to the saint during Mass on St. Patrick's Day.

HELP TO MANY

St. Joseph is the patron saint for a host of groups and causes, including:

• the dying

• the universal church

• fathers

• carpenters

• social justice

• bursars

• house hunters

• people in doubt

• people who fight communism

• China

• Belgium

• Canada

• cabdrivers

SOURCES: Catholic Online; Saints.sqpn.com