St. Anthony’s Church has run into an unexpected but welcome snag in its efforts to create a memory book celebrating a century of life and faith at the heart of its vibrant Little Italy community.
The Booth Street church, officially known as St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church, has had to delay publishing the memory book until 2014 because of the overwhelming number of photos and anecdotes submitted by community members, says the 100th anniversary committee co-chair, Trina Constantini-Powell
For the past year, the committee has been accepting contributions and fundraising for the book as part of the parish’s centennial celebrations, says Constantini-Powell.
Members of St. Anthony’s are excited by the results, she adds.
“We’ve collected bags full of over 400 submissions that recount the unique history of our church and its people,” says Carla Minoli-Lappa, president of the church’s parish council.
Now, they’re sorting it all into chapters that reflect the periods in the church’s history, explains Constantini-Powell.
Constantini-Powell notes that the book has grown into a much larger project than she originally envisioned, one that depicts the church as a central part of life in Little Italy over the past century.
“While recording the history of the church, we’re actually recording the history of the Italian-Canadian community. In 1913, the neighborhood was really small, and the church was the focal point of the community – the two go hand in hand,” says Constantini-Powell.
Out of the hundreds of photos, Minoli-Lappa says her favourite is picture of singer and actor Frank Sinatra with St. Anthony’s Pastor, Father Jerome Ferraro, and a group of parishioners.
The church group grabbed the photo after Sinatra performed at the old Ottawa Auditorium on Argyle Street during his first ever visit to Ottawa in July 1949.
One of the parishioners in the photo is the now 80-year-old Italo Tiezzi. Meeting Sinatra is just one of Tiezzi’s many special memories as a member of St. Anthony’s parish. He’s been attending the church since he was baptized there eight decades years ago.
“The church has been important to the community all along because when immigrants came to Canada, and they couldn’t speak English or French, they would go to the church to hear their language and feel more at home,” says Tiezzi.
He donated many family photos to the memory book and says he’s happy to help celebrate the church’s first 100 years.
The community needs the memory book as a historical record as the demography of the church changes, says Tiezzi.
“People come and go, churches can move and close down. It’s important to record these memories before they are lost . . . This book is very interesting to existing parishioners, but it also reflects the history of the community, and it is an important archive for the future.”
Creating that kind of detailed archive is costly. To supplement parishioner’s financial donations to support the memory book, St. Anthony’s held a fundraising dinner in October. The event was a huge success and the project now has enough funding to be completed, explained Minoli-Lappa.
The 100th anniversary committee had originally budgeted about $2000 to finish the memory book, but with so many more submissions than expected, Minoli-Lappa says the old budget no longer applies.
“We were planning on a 200 page book, but now we are delighted to be planning something that will probably be over 250 pages!” she says.
They are currently reassessing both the budget and projected price of the memory book.
“We hope that by the time this book is finished,” she adds, “everyone feels like they are truly a part of it.”