Father Antonio Demo (April 23, 1870 – January 2, 1936) was a New York City Italian American priest and civic activist. He studied at seminaries in Italy and entered the Scalabrini Order in 1894. Prior to his ordination, Demo served in the

Italian military The Italian Armed Forces ( it, Forze armate italiane, ) encompass the Italian Army, the Italian Navy and the Italian Air Force. A fourth branch of the armed forces, known as the Carabinieri, take on the role as the nation's military police a ...

. He was ordained a priest on July 20, 1896, the same year he emigrated to the United States. He initially did missionary work for two years in the parish of the Sacred Heart in Boston, which served a congregation of Italian immigrants mostly from

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of t ...

. On July 19, 1899, he was assigned as assistant pastor of Our Lady of Pompeii Church, established in 1892 by Father Pietro Bandini in New York City's

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

on Bleecker and Carmine Streets. In 1900 he was appointed pastor of the church, which served what was then one of largest

Italian-American Italian Americans ( it, italoamericani or ''italo-americani'', ) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan area ...

communities in America.Nicholas Joseph Falco, "Antonio Demo." Father Demo Square, New York City (May 2014) - 2

Father Demo exercised his apostolate among the Italian immigrants, serving until 1923 also as the director of the St. Raphael Society for the Protection of Italian Immigrants, an organization that had been specifically formed in 1891 by Bandini to assist newly arrived immigrants and that he helped to strengthen. His spiritual care and leadership were put to test on March 25, 1911, when he had to respond to the tragic

Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, on Saturday, March 25, 1911, was the deadliest List of industrial disasters, industrial disaster in the history of the city, and one of the d ...

, which claimed the lives of 146 female employees. Because of his many merits in the care of the Italian community he was decorated with the "Cross of Knight of the Crown of Italy". In 1923 Father Demo learned that the church would have to be demolished to allow extension of the

Sixth Avenue Sixth Avenue – also known as Avenue of the Americas, although this name is seldom used by New Yorkers, p.24 – is a major thoroughfare in New York City's borough of Manhattan, on which traffic runs northbound, or "uptown". It is commercial ...

. Father Demo organized a campaign to buy a nearby property and with the help of a leading Italian American architect, Matthew Del Gaudio, build a new church and rectory. The new church was available for the congregation in May 1927. In late Summer 1931 the parochial school also was opened. In 1935 Father Demo became Pompei's pastor emeritus and superintendent of its

parochial school A parochial school is a private primary or secondary school affiliated with a religious organization, and whose curriculum includes general religious education in addition to secular subjects, such as science, mathematics and language arts. The wor ...

. He died in 1936 in Greenwich Village in New York City, and thousands of parishioners and friends, including Mayor

Fiorello La Guardia Fiorello Henry LaGuardia (; born Fiorello Enrico LaGuardia, ; December 11, 1882September 20, 1947) was an American attorney and politician who represented New York in the House of Representatives and served as the 99th Mayor of New York City fro ...

, paid their respects. In 1941, the intersection of

Bleecker Street Bleecker Street is an east–west street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is most famous today as a Greenwich Village nightclub district. The street connects a neighborhood today popular for music venues and comedy, but which ...

and Sixth Avenue was named

Father Demo Square Father Demo Square is a triangular park and piazza bounded by Sixth Avenue, Bleecker Street, and Carmine Street in the South Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. The park is named for Father Antonio Demo, who was the pastor o ...

. In 2009, after a renovation, Father Demo Square was honored with a Village Award by the

Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation Village Preservation (formerly the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, or GVSHP) is a non-profit organization which advocates for the preservation of architecture and culture in several neighborhoods of Lower Manhattan, New York. ...

Our Lady of Pompei Church seen through Father Demo Square

References

Notes Bibliography *Brown, Mary Elizabeth. "Italian Immigrant Catholic Clergy and an Exception to the Rule: The Revered Antonio Demo, Our Lady of Pompeii, Greenwich Village, 1899-1933." In ''Church History'' 62.1 (March 1993): 41–59. *Falco, Nicholas Joseph. "Antonio Demo." In ''The Italian American Experience: An Encyclopedia'', ed. Salvatore J. LaGumina (New York: Garland, 2000), 177–78.

External links

Biography of Father Demo

Scalabrinians Official Website

Our Lady of Pompeii Church
{{DEFAULTSORT:Demo, Antonio 1870 births 1936 deaths Italian emigrants to the United States Religious leaders from New York City Scalabrinians History of Catholicism in the United States 19th-century American Roman Catholic priests 20th-century American Roman Catholic priests