Among the St. Bart's Festivities, a Moment for Faith

Every Labor Day weekend since 1974, "the best-kept secret in New Jersey" returns: the Italian Feast at St. Bartholomew the Apostle Church in Scotch Plains.

In what has become an annual staple for Scotch Plains and Fanwood residents, there's a merry-go-round and Ferris wheel, games of chance, a daily 50/50 drawing, live music nightly and an appetizing buffet of Italian food, from calamari to sausage-and-pepper sandwiches to cannolis and zeppoles – bursts of dough fried and dusted with powdered sugar that melt in the mouth.

The event, which raises money for the church, the church's private elementary school and the local chapter of the United National Italian Cultural Organization's (UNICO) charities and scholarship fund, is organized and spread out in a vast array on church grounds for four days and staffed by hundreds of volunteers.

A little-known festival highlight is a special Mass, celebrated in Italian outside of the regular Mass schedule, followed by a spirited procession honoring the patron saint of Montazzoli, Italy, Saint Nicola di Bari. In 2010, the church added a new tradition for the special Mass.

"For the first time, we took the traditional Italian Mass and included it into the Saturday night Mass," said the church's pastor, Father John Paladino. He said that by integrating the Italian Mass into the Saturday Mass, he hoped it would expand the procession's religious significance to the broader church community.

As Paladino concluded Mass this past Saturday night, he asked all parishioners, both those of Montazzolesi descent, and those with roots in other nationalities, including newcomers, to join in the procession.

"The more people in the procession, the more it becomes a work of evangelization," he urged, as a crowd began gathering in front of the church, and Mike Aromondo's Metropolitan Band, an Italian street band, started playing. "That says something to the people out there on the grounds, that our faith is important."

To longtime parishioners Nick Del Negro and Emil DiFrancesco, who emigrated from Montazzoli in the 1960s, the religious procession is a vital spiritual and cultural tradition.

"We believe in St. Nicholas and the support of our church," Del Negro said, as he lifted the front end of a canopy with DiFrancesco. Del Negro said that the story of St. Nicholas, an ordinary man who became a saint and performed miracles by "helping all the poor people, especially the children with no mother or father," inspired him to join the procession.

"It's an honor to participate in the procession," added DiFrancesco, smiling broadly. "I hope next year more Montazzolesi will participate."

The procession's organizer, John Cerimele, explained the purpose of the ritual: "In Italian culture, the processing of the statue honors the saint for the special role he plays in the life of the people," he said. "Religious tradition is not something that's got to be kept secret  – you've got to pass it along."

At this year's celebration, Cerimele's son-in-law, Dominick Rotondo, helped carry the statue, and Cerimele's goddaughter participated in the Italian portion of the Mass. Cerimele added that he, too, would like to see more families – Montazzolesi and newcomers alike – participate in the procession. "Religious traditions aren't only Italian traditions, they are Catholic traditions, and for them to survive, they have to become a tradition for the whole community."

Cerimele has been involved with the St. Nicola di Bari procession since 1967, when he was a 13-year-old altar boy, recently arrived from Montazzoli with his family. That year, he said, a parish priest him to recite one of the readings during the Italian Mass. It was a request he had to honor, Cerimele said, now 53. Today, said Father Paladino, "John's the keeper of the tradition."

On Saturday, as the pastor and the organizer made final preparations for the Mass and the procession, the two talked about the church's religious and Italian history, which are intimately intertwined. Cerimele said he can remember the 1960s and 1970s clearly, when the parish's first- and second-generation Italian families, who worked in the trades and literally poured the foundation for the church, school and convent, would carry the statue of St. Nicholas through the streets of the town's "little Montazzoli" on the north side of town.

This year, the statue stayed in the church narthex on Saturday and Sunday morning, so that children could see and grow up with the tradition, as their families once had in Italy, Cerimele said. Before Mass began on Saturday, parishioner Tina Price of Scotch Plains helped her daughter, Faith, 7, pin a dollar on the statue before Mass.

"It's something my mother always did," explained Price, who added that her mother had emigrated from Italy. "Í want the tradition to pass down to them, and for them to have something to remember my family members by."

Dori Perrucci, an author and journalist who grew up in Scotch Plains, graduated from St. Bartholomew the Apostle grade school. Her grandparents, Concezio (John) and Rachel, emigrated from Montazzoli, Italy in 1913 and 1920, respectively.

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