The St. Leonard's Catholic Church website, (
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"Founded in 1873, St. Leonard’s Church is the first Roman Catholic Church in New England built by Italian immigrants. Located in the historic North End of Boston, the church building sits at the corner of Hanover and Prince Streets on Boston’s Freedom Trail.
Before the year 1870 there were very few Italians living in the city of Boston. However, in the succeeding years the number of Italians arriving in Boston increased dramatically. Though they had left home and country to find material success in a new world, these people, descendents of a nation that has always been loyal to the church, could not and would not be neglected spiritually. Hence, there arose a great necessity of attending to the spiritual needs of these people, who were complete strangers to the language and customs of this new land.
In 1873, Archbishop Williams of Boston called upon the Franciscans of the Immaculate Conception Province, many of whom recently arrived in the United States themselves, to minister to the spiritual needs of the rising Italian immigrant population in Boston. In the three years before, the population of Italians in Boston rose dramatically. The newly arrived immigrants were a strong presence in New England that could not be neglected spiritually.
Fr. Angelo Conterno, O.F.M., was the first pastor of the newly founded parish preceded a year later in February 1874, by Fr. Joachim Guerrini, O.F.M. The cramp quarters of a church on nearby North Bennet Street, offered masses in Italian and Portuguese for the growing diversity of Christians, while the blueprints were set to establish a church for blossoming Italian population in the North End.
On a cool November day, during the Feast of St. Leonard’s two years later, a lot of land situated on Prince Street measuring a mere seventy four by thirty feet and purchased for the grand sum $9,000.00 was solemnly dedicated by Archbishop Williams. The foundations were had been laid for the first Italian parish in the United States.
But the advent of even more immigrants searching for fortune and a better life in American pushed the small church to its limits and the need for an even larger church became reluctantly apparent. In 1885, the work for even a larger church began. While the new land was cleared and the upper church built, the basement of the new church served to fill the spiritual needs of close to close to twenty thousand Italian Christians; the humble foundations serving as a spiritual foundation to the growing community of wide-eyed new arrivals and hard-working, struggling immigrants who had recently made America their home. In November, 1899, the current upper church, included the famed St. Anthony Shrine, was dedicated along with the friary on North Bennet Street. and The upper church was built at the cost of $160,000.00 and was dedicated in November 1899."
"St. Leonard
According to the romance that accrued to his name, recorded in an 11th-century vita, Leonard was a Frankish noble in the court of Clovis I, founder of the Merovingian dynasty. He was converted to Christianity along with the king, at Christmas 496, by Saint Remigius, Bishop of Reims. Leonard asked Clovis to grant him personally the right to liberate prisoners whom he would find worthy of it, at any time.
Leonard secured the release of a number of prisoners, for whom he has become a patron saint, then, declining the offer of a bishopric— a prerogative of Merovingian nobles— he entered the monastery at Micy near Orléans, under the direction of Saint Mesmin and Saint Lie. Then, according to his legend, Leonard became a hermit in the forest of Limousin, where he gathered a number of followers. Through his prayers the queen of the Franks was safely delivered of a male child, and in recompense Leonard was given royal lands at Noblac, 21 km (13 mi) from Limoges. It is likely that the toponym was derived from the Latin family name Nobilius and the common Celtic element -ac, simply denoting a place. There he founded the abbey of Noblac, around which a village grew, named in his honour Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat.
According to legend, prisoners who invoked him from their cells saw their chains break before their eyes. Many came to him afterwards, bringing their heavy chains and irons to offer them in homage. A considerable number remained with him, and he often gave them part of his vast forest to clear and make ready for the labours of the fields, that they might have the means to live an honest life." (
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