By William C. Shelton

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff or publishers)

Saint Anthony Church will conduct a series of events to commemorate its hundredth anniversary, beginning with a noon bilingual mass and a luncheon celebrating the Feast of St. Anthony this coming Sunday. A Brazilian festival takes place the following Saturday evening, June 20^th. And Cardinal Sean O’Malley will celebrate a centennial mass on September 6^th.

Saint Anthony’s history parallels the episodic story of immigrants who came to America—and Somerville—in search of opportunity, and who helped build a powerful economy, diverse society, and global political power.

From the time of the American Revolution to 1861 a small but steady stream of Italians came to the U.S., recruited for their specialized skills. Though they constituted a tiny minority, 7,000 fought in the Civil War.

For a variety of reasons Italian unification, which occurred in the same year that the American Civil War began, resulted in extensive, intensive, and long-lasting economic hardship. Multitudes of impoverished Italians immigrated to the Americas.

Their most common initial destinations were Brazil and Argentina. But those who arrived in Brazil discovered that promises of “free land” were misleading. The land on offer was rarely adequate to support subsistence agriculture. It was scraps of barely arable soil around the borders of giant coffee latifúndios whose workers were treated little better than slaves.

Meanwhile the Civil War had killed or wounded over a half million Americans. Their absence from the labor force created demand for immigrant labor, and the U.S. became a preferred destination for Italian immigrants.

Italy’s economic distress continued for decades and extended as far north as Milan, where in the 1880s Giovanni Battista Scalabrini beheld masses of dispossessed workers huddled around that city’s train station, awaiting transportation to the port of Genoa.

The sight moved him deeply and stayed with him when he returned to nearby Piacenza, where he served as Bishop. With the backing of Pope Leo XIII, in 1887 he founded the Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo “to ensure as far as possible the moral, civil, and economic welfare” of immigrants to the Americas.

The following summer seven Missionaries left for Brazil, and three for New York. The order would eventually produce America’s first saint, Sister Francesca Cabrini. But before that, the Scalabrinians would come to Somerville.

Boston’s North End had been home to Puritans in the 17^th Century and Yankee entrepreneurs in the 18^th Century. As the 19^th Century wore on, affluent North Enders moved to Beacon Hill, or across the river to Charlestown. By the late 1840s, living conditions were the worst in the city, coinciding with the arrival of destitute refugees from Ireland’s Potato Famine.

Over two generations, they prospered and moved out, to be replaced by Eastern European Jews and Italians. In 1888 a group of Italian immigrants constituted themselves as the Saint Mark Society and bought the building that had been the Seaman’s Bethel. The Scalabrini fathers opened a church there in 1890, and Archbishop O’Connell named it Sacred Heart.

Somerville’s ethnic succession was similar to the North End’s, although somewhat later. Only a few Italians were living here when Sacred Heart opened, but the city’s burgeoning industries drew a flood of Italian immigrants after the turn of the Century.

In 1914 Nazareno Properzi, a 24-year-old priest who only two moths earlier had been ordained in Italy was sent by Sacred Heart to examine these immigrants circumstances. Walking up and down Somerville Avenue knocking on doors, he found many eager to hear sermons and give confession in their own language.

The following year he rented an Elm Street storefront. Youthful volunteers cleaned it and installed its only furnishing—an improvised altar, a crucifix, four candles, and a statue of the Blessed Virgin. Fifty people attended the first mass.

Two months later they moved to a Somerville Avenue storefront, where a sale of homemade aprons paid for a few furnishings. The congregation grew rapidly. The next year they bought property at Somerville Avenue and Vine Street, since renamed “Properzi Way.” Two years later, they celebrated their first mass in the lower church, joined by singers from Boston’s Handel and Hayden Society.

The Romanesque-style upper church that we see today was completed in 1925, and its 600-seat capacity could not accommodate attendees at its dedication.

All who knew Father Properzi describe him as modest, dedicated, and compassionate, with a compelling vision, scholarly mind, and effective administrative skills. His superiors recognized this and in 1934 made him the Saclabrinians’ Provincial Superior for the U.S. His reach and effectiveness extended internationally when he organized massive relief programs for homeless and destitute European survivors of World War II.

After the war he refocused on his own parish with characteristic vigor, while filling a variety of local and national posts, both secular and clerical. Following his death in 1960, he was replaced by a succession of dedicated pastors who continued his work.

Meanwhile Somerville was changing. The closure of factories and the lure of suburbs worked together to produce a net population decrease of 36,000 between 1950 and 1970. Many of St. Anthony’s parishioners left the city, although they and their offspring often continued to think of the church as their spiritual home and still return for special occasions.

Somerville’s plummeting rents made the city attractive to a variety of immigrant groups. Brazilians came, initially fleeing a military dictatorship, and after 1985 seeking the same economic opportunity sought by the Irish, Italians, and Portuguese who preceded them. In Somerville they found landlords and potential employers who spoke their own language.

In early 1989, a St. Anthony’s priest affectionately knows as “Father Bob” began saying Mass in Portuguese. Brazilians flocked to the church for the same reason that Italians had—to worship in their own language.

Today St. Anthony’s Parish Administrator is Ademir Guerini, and his biography recapitulates Scalabrinian history. A descendant of Italian immigrants to Brazil, after being ordained there he was sent to Venezuela to minister to Brazilians who had gone their to work in the oil boom. After assignments in Bogota and Washington D.C., he came to Somerville five years ago.

Father Ademir is a people’s priest who has an easy smile, kind word, and warm sense of humor for all whom he encounters. Among St. Anthony’s many roles is to help immigrants assimilate to American culture while preserving their own identity. The church is creating a cultural and assistance center and conducting English classes. Father Guerini hopes to help maintain the integrity of immigrant families, who he tells me are often closer here than they were in Brazil.

He says that it’s important for each generation, acting on its faith and values, to leave something of the generations to come. The Italians built St. Anthony’s and left it to the Brazilians. As St. Anthony’s second century begins, the Brazilians are refurbishing the school hall, installing new lighting in the sanctuary, establishing new programs, and recreating community.

Somerville was once exceptional among American towns for its strong fabric of community, woven by intertwining networks of extended families, neighborhoods, churches, unions, fraternal organizations, youth sports leagues, political clubs, and civic organizations.

Most of those networks have unraveled, but the churches remain. So St. Anthony’s centennial is something that we can all celebrate.