After the 12:45 p.m. mass on Sunday, November 4th there will be a Gala to celebrate St. Francis of Paolo Catholic Church’s 100th birthday. It will be held in the auditorium where a hot buffet, wine, beverages, mini Venetian hour, a DJ, raffles and other festivities will take place for a ticket price of $60. Contact (718) 387-0256 or sfp100anv@gmail.com to purchase tickets.
If you look at St. Francis of Paolo (219 Conselyea St. ) you can see some of its history in the colors of its bricks. The red brick sections are part of the original building and the wheat gold bricks are from the rebuild during the 1940s. When you enter the church you’ll see an inspiring array of the saint statues St. Francis has collected from its start to today. The pews and baptismal font are from the 40s, and there is woodworking on the altar from the 70s. If that doesn’t give you enough of a sense of the reciprocal devotion of church and community then find the pieta carved in teak, near the altar, and touch it. Its easy access is for just this purpose, as it demonstrates the welcoming nature of St. Francis of Paolo church, which increases as time passes.
The “little church on the hill”, as St. Francis of Paolo is warmly referred to, came to be in 1918 when the then Bishop of Brooklyn saw the need for a second church to serve the area’s growing Italian community. At that time and previous, churches were created to serve separate cultural groups. Williamsburg had and has its Polish, Italian, Latin American, Irish, etc. churches that served and serves these populations, and as time went on the churches became more welcoming of any cultural group. The land on which St. Francis is built was purchased from the Dutch Reformist Church that installed their church in the 1600s. They built a larger one there in 1840. It has been a community holy ground for centuries.
In its new life as a catholic church it was dedicated to St. Francis of Paola, a 15th century Italian mendicant friar and the founder of the Roman Catholic Order of Minims. His patron saint and namesake was St. Francis of Assisi. According to “The Lives or the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints” by the Rev. Alban Butler, St. Francis of Paola cured many people of the plague on his trek from Italy to attend the deathbed of King Louis XI of France.
St. Francis’ original congregation grew rapidly and soon needed a larger church. The new church dedicated on April 26, 1942, in addition to increasing space, was built mindful of Italian artistic traditions and its architecture echoes early Romanesque lines.
In 2011 St. Francis of Paola joined with St. Cecilia and St. Nicholas churches to form one parish called Divine Mercy. The garden, which was started as a victory garden in WWII, has had recent additions of fig and persimmon trees, a rose bush, and a new trellis to shelter the outdoor statue of St. Francis of Paolo. This year as an invitation to newcomers, while offering additional access to the faithful, the doors to the church are open to the public on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. A two-week vacation bible camp launched this summer with success. The church’s Friday youth program has forty participants and the churches societies (St. Theresa Guild and St. Anthony Society) are thriving and welcome new participants.
“Keep watching! New things are coming,” said Father Thomas Vassalotti, pastor of Divine Mercy parish.
St. Francis of Paolo Catholic Church’s Centennial Celebration will directly follow 12:45 p.m. mass on Sunday, November 4th in the auditorium, 219 Conselyea St, Brooklyn, NY 1121. Gala ticket price is $60. For more information or to purchase tickets, journal ads, or display your St. Francis of Paolo memorabilia Contact (718) 387-0256 or sfp100anv@gmail.com to purchase tickets.
The Greenline 
Lori Ann, My immediate family and I grew up at 382 Humboldt Street and my mom always took still pictures AND moving pictures of us with St Francis patrons coming in and out of mass. We have terrific video’s of our entire extended family and friends. And more facinating are the moving pictures and stills taken at the Grotto across the street through All seasons…….. When I was very young on steel roller skate’s with my friend Angela who lived right across the street, we were standing at the corner of humboldt st looking down Maspeth Ave to see what that large WHITE object was coming toward us and the church. Long story Short! That was a large white horse with no rider who seemed to look right at us and then run toward us. Angela made it back to her house – I skated across the street because I couldn’t make it quick enough around the corner, That white horse chased me right down the middle isle of the marble ground, while my steel skates made a racket trying to skate as fast as I can to get away. I had blonde hair and I thought the horse might be thinking my hair was hay and try to eat my head. As I heard him clomping closer and closer I cut thru one of the pews with my skates clicking on the back of the wooden seats. The horse couldn’t fit and the noise brought the father out from beside the alter. I got my chance to run out the back of the church and skate home to 382 humboldt st. Yelling, Mom! Mom! there’s a horse chasing me. My mom didn’t know what to think. She threw open the front window – and looked toward conselyea and saw the horse running into the middle of the cross street. A car was passing and screeched to a stop. It startled the horse and it went up on two hind legs and stomped down on the hood of that car. The horse now startled kept standing still and jumping up and down on his hind legs. The was a bar on that corner, A guy ran out of the bar took off his jacket and threw it over the horses head and he calmed down immediately, Later that week or so we found out that white horse had broke loose from a horse stable down Maspeth ave and ran wit h no rider.. It never showed up in any of the news papers. But my family and the people involved will never forget it.
True news. Lillian Cimino
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Very true. She is my sister when I was younger my grandmother would take me to St Francise to light candles. Very good memories in Brooklyn
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