25 Carmine St, New York, NY 10014
Phone: (212) 989-6805

History of Pompeii Church

• • ABOUT US
• Our Lady of Pompeii began in 1892 as the chapel of St. Raphael Society for the Protection of Italian Immigrants, which was located in a townhouse that is still standing at 113 Waverly Place. In 1895, Pompeii rented the former Bethel Methodist Colored Church at 214 Sullivan St., no longer standing. In 1898 it purchased a church that stood at 210 Bleecker Street, across from the southern end of Minietta Street nearby on the eastern side of Sixth Avenue. The church, which looked like a Greek Temple, was erected in 1836 for the Unitarian Universalists. In 1888 the Unitarians sold the church to the African American Roman Catholic congregation of St. Benedict the Moor. When the city condemned the church to extend Sixth Avenue, Pompeii erected this building, formally opening it October 7, 1928.The church’s architect was Mathew Del Gaudio, an Italian American graduate of Cooper Union active in his profession from 1905 to his death in 1960. Del Gaudio created a Romanesque building that would have reminded the earliest parishioners of Italy, with its shallow front steps and flat façade close to the street, its domed sanctuary, and its campanile, or bell tower. The figure on the roof is St. Charles Borromeo, patron saint of the order of priests that founded and staff Pompeii.Step in, look up, and you’ll see paintings celebrating the Rosary, the work of Professore Antonio D’Ambrosio, who was born in Italy and trained as an artist there. He opened his ecclesiastical arts company in 1928, specializing in creating artwork for churches, trained his children in the field, and passed the business along to them. D’Ambrosio’s descendants have returned to do restoration work on Pompeii’s art several times.The right wall’s images depict the Joyful Mysteries: the Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, Presentation, and Finding Jesus in the Temple. Those on the left wall depict the Sorrowful Mysteries: Jesus’ Agony in the Garden, His Scourging, His Crowing with Thorn, His Carrying of the Cross, and His Crucifixion. On the ceiling are the Glorious Mysteries: the Resurrection, Ascension, Pentecost, Assumption, and the Crowning of the Blessed Virgin in Heaven.Above the altar is a complex construction. On the left and right of the mural, respectively, are images of the Church Suffering, the souls in Purgatory awaiting redemption, and the Church Triumphant, the saints in Heaven.
  
• The centerpiece is dedicated to the Church Militant, or the Church on Earth. Above the center is an image of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii, with Jesus on her lap, both of them handing rosaries to St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena, early promoters of the rosary. Angels fly about them. Across the bottom are images associated with Pompeii parish, such as the building’s campanile. The figure in red on the right is St. Charles Borromeo. The bishop in white is Blessed John Baptist Scalabrini, founder of the priests who serve at Pompeii. The figure with the basket of roses is St. Martin de Porres, a tribute to the African American community whose church Pompeii purchased. To the left is a Franciscan friar, acknowledging that the Franciscans were the first ministers to New York’s Italians, at St. Anthony of Padua parish on Sullivan Street, a few blocks south of Pompeii. On the right is a galleon, a reminder that the Spanish credited their victory in the 1571 Battle of Lepanto to praying the rosary. The Latin phrase at the mural’s base translates as “Not Arms, Not Leaders, but the Virgin Mary of the Rosary Made us Victors.” Professore D’Ambrosio worked on this commission from 1934 to 1937, finishing with the painting of Jesus revealing His Sacred Heart to Saint Margaret Mary that is to the left as you come further into the church.Just behind you, near the entrance on the left, are statues indicative of the diversity of Pompei’s congregation.
  
• The centerpiece is a shrine to Mother Frances Cabrini, patroness of immigrants. Before her is a statue of Jesus Nazareno, an image revered among the Filipino immigrants who also worship at Pompeii. The statue of San Gaetano is a long ago gift from his devotees that cannot be dated. The statue of Saint Jude is a 1955 bequest from parishioner Catherine Brignole; Jude, patron of hopeless causes, was a popular saint in the mid twentieth century. The bust of Bishop Scalabrini also dates from 1955, and Scalabrini’s coat of arms on the column near the bust, from soon thereafter, but these represent the beginnings of devotion to someone who may yet be declared a saint.At the beginning of the wall on the left, or southwest, side of the church, are statues of two saints popular among Italians, St. Rose of Lima and St. Lucy. Then come the stained glass windows, work on which commenced in 1928, with the Stations of the Cross between them. (The Stations and windows actually “begin” at end of the wall nearer the altar if you want to skip ahead and walk back.) The stained glass window at the back of the church is important not only for its illustrations of four of the Beatitudes but for the donors associated with it. Carolina Perazzo, whose name appears on the window, was the daughter of funeral home director Carlo Baciagalupo. She married Giovanni Battista Perazzo, who learned the undertaking business from his wife and father-in-law, and opened his own funeral home at 199 Bleecker St. in Greenwich Village. The business is no longer in the family, but is still at 199 Bleecker St.Most of the topics of the stained glass windows are easily recognizable, but some require some insider knowledge of Pompeii. For example, see the window on the southwest wall given in honor of A. Agostino Gazzolo. The bishop in the window is Scalabrini, the two clergy are a Scalabrinian priest and brother, and the two nuns represent two orders Blessed Scalabrini encouraged:
  
• Mother Cabrini’s Missionaries of the Sacred Heart and the Apostles of the Sacred Heart, whose members taught in Pompeii’s school. The Gospel quotation references the Scalabrinians’ mission to help migrants preserve their faith in their new homes.Before turning to the altar, step into the room to the left, where there is a striking stained glass window and several more statues. St. Gerard’s statue came from the maternity ward on the 5^thfloor of the Seton Building of St. Vincent de Paul; Greenwich Village’s hospital from 1849 to 2010; it is a gift from the hospital’s founders, the Sisters of Charity.The altar wall of the church consists of three parts. The mosaics of Assumption and of Jesus in Purgatory date from the tenure of Father Mario Albanese, pastor from 1952 to 1964. While you are at the Assumption altar, look at the wall to the left to see the fine mosaic of the Holy Family. In front of the image of the Assumption is one of Pompeii’s newest statues, that of Padre Pio, a Franciscan priest who was declared a saint in 2002. There is also an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Normally, that would indicate the presence of Mexican devotees, but during Pompeii’s earliest years, women from Chiavari, south of Genoa, practiced the devotion.
  
• Embedded in the marble pre-Vatican II altar is a painting of Our Lady of the Rosary that is an exact replica of the one at the shrine to Our Lady of the Rosary in Pompeii, Italy. The painting was an 1895 gift of heiress Annie Leary. Shortly after its installation, this parish received permission from the Italian shrine’s founder, Bartolomeo Longo, to promote itself as the American shrine. The painting first hung over the altar at the 210 Bleecker Street church mentioned earlier; it was cut to its present shape to fit the altar here.Pompei’s oldest statues cluster around the Purgatory image. Those of the Blessed Mother and St. John the Evangelist date from the 1880s and are part of a set that, together with the crucifix in the donor’s shrine near the church entrance, were fixtures at St. Benedict the Moor. The statues of the Sacred Heart and St. Joseph appear in a 1909 photograph of Pompeii.The stained glass windows to the right of the altar, Pompeii’s northeast wall, also reflect parish history. Note the windows depicting marriage vows and Pope Leo sending Mother Cabrini to the Americas, all given by relatives of Italian-American lawyer Edward Bergonzi, who, along with pioneer Italian immigrant Luigi Fugazy, was on Pompeii’s first board of trustees. The image of the priest in the window depicting marriage is that of Father Antonio Demo, who served at Pompeii from 1898 to 1936, most of the time as pastor; he led Pompeii in building this church. Perhaps after you have completed your visit here you can see the park named for him, diagonally across the street from the church.
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  At the end of the row of Stations and windows is the donor’s shrine, and a plaque noting that Pompeii’s campanile was restored in honor of Vincent Gigante by his parents. He is better known as “Chin” Gigante, and was a leader in one of New York City’s organized crime families. His own family, though, included many other members who were part of the parish; before this plaque went up, another plaque, at the beginning of the Stations of the Cross, notes the Stations were refurbished in honor of Pietro Gigante.On your way out, look up. Above Pompeii’s doors are three stained glass windows. The one of Columbus giving thanks for having reached land in the Americas is a tribute to Pompeii’s Italian roots. The depiction of Ellis Island is a reminder of Pompeii’s commitment to immigrants. In the center is an image of the Holy Family on the Flight into Egypt, a reminder that Jesus, Mary and Joseph were once counted among the world’s migrants and refugees.  Dr. Mary Elizabeth Brown, PhD.

In 1927, in order to extend Sixth Avenue south to Canal Street, the city tore down the 210 Bleecker Street building that Saint Benedict’s and Pompeii had occupied, and Pompeii moved to its present church. In 1979, St. Benedict’s contacted Pompeii regarding the other two statues in the original Crucifixion scene. The late Brother Michael La Mantia, c.s., oversaw the statues’ transfer to the present Pompeii church. The pastor at the time, the late Father Edward Marino, c.s., was using the Crucifix as the centerpiece for a niche honoring donors to the church, so instead of reuniting the set he placed the statues of the Blessed Mother and Saint John in their present positions, before the mosaic of the Crucified Christ and the Souls in Purgatory.