L'Italo-Americano

www.italoamericano.org 30 L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2020 SEATTLE ITALIAN COMMUNITY M ore than a c e n t u r y a g o , O u r L a d y o f M o u n t Virgin, located in Seattle's Mount Baker neighborhood, was once the heart of Seat- tle's Italian community. In 1915, when the church was built, about 215 Italian fami- lies called the neighborhood home. As new immigrants arrived, Our Lady of Mount Virgin was one of the first places they would visit for i n f o r m a t i o n o n j o b s a n d h o u s i n g , t o m a k e n e w friends and to tend to their spiritual needs. A few years later, Seattle w a t c h e d i n h o r r o r a s t h e great flu pandemic of 1918 spread through the Pacific Northwest along with the rest of the world. Although it remains to be seen whether the coronavirus will be as devastating, the so-called "Spanish flu" was the most widespread and lethal out- break of disease in recorded h i s t o r y . I n W a s h i n g t o n state, the flu touched nearly e v e r y c o m m u n i t y , k i l l i n g a b o u t 5 , 0 0 0 W a s h i n g t o - n i a n s . U n l i k e C O V I D - 1 9 , more than half the victims were between the ages of 20 and 50. Our Lady of Mount Virgin h a d i t s r o o t s i n a s m a l l German church built in the 1890s by Seattle's German C a t h o l i c c o m m u n i t y w h o wanted a church where they could worship in their own l a n g u a g e . T h e w o o d e n church was named for St. Boniface, the patron saint of Germany. But by 1910, the neighborhood was changing as more Italians moved into the area. This new group of immigrants wanted a church that reflected their own her- itage and language. Edward O'Dea, bishop of Seattle from 1896 until his death in 1932, called on t h e J e s u i t c o m m u n i t y t o minister to the Italian immi- grants, and a priest called Father De Rop took on the task. On September 10, 1911, Fr. De Rop celebrated the first mass in Italian at St. Boniface. A few weeks later, he changed its name to Our L a d y o f M o u n t V i r g i n i n t r i b u t e t o t h e f a m o u s Benedictine monastery of Montevergine in southern Italy. By 1913, De Rop's health w a s f a i l i n g , a n d F r . Ludovico Caramello, a charismatic and energetic Jesuit priest, stepped in. Caramello was from a well- to-do family in Turin, Italy, and had served at a parish in Montreal becoming mov- ing to Seattle. He took up residency in St. Boniface's rectory while m a k i n g p l a n s t o b u i l d a larger and grander church in the Florentine style. He also wanted a school built on the site. When his first collection plate took in just 35 cents, Caramello simply l a u g h e d a n d w e n t a h e a d with his work, "smiling and full of hope," according to a n a r t i c l e i n T h e S e a t t l e Times. Thanks to this hopeful a t t i t u d e a n d C a r a m e l l o ' s many contacts back in Italy, his dream of a new church was realized when the new Our Lady of Mount Virgin opened its doors in 1915. The church was built in a Renaissance Revival style on a steep hill, overlooking lush gardens. Tall arched stained-glass windows let in daylight and a bell tower graced the front façade. The smaller Church of St. B o n i f a c e w a s d e c o m m i s - s i o n e d a n d s e r v e d f o r a while as a parish hall. It later became a gym, kindergarten and workshop before it was torn down around 1970. I n 1 9 1 8 , a p a r o c h i a l s c h o o l o p e n e d w i t h a n enrollment of 162 students and remained in operation for more than 60 years. The D o m i n i c a n s i s t e r s o f Tacoma, long recognized for their dedication to quality education, took charge of the school, led by Reverend Mother Thomasina. F o r t h e n e w l y a r r i v e d Italians, education was seen as the ticket to a better life. " T h e i m m i g r a n t p a r e n t s were poor and had to take w h a t j o b s t h e y c o u l d g e t because of the language bar- rier," said Sister Manette in a n i n t e r v i e w w i t h T h e Seattle Times in the 1970s. "They saw education as a doorway for their children and would sacrifice anything t o g e t i t f o r t h e m . " F r . Caramello was determined to preserve the children's connection to their heritage, and visited the school every week to provide instruction in Italian. F r . C a r a m e l l o w a s 4 4 years old when he arrived in Seattle, and he remained pastor of Our Lady of Mount Virgin until he died in 1949 a t t h e a g e o f 7 9 . H e w a s devoted to his students and his parishioners and worked hard to merge the Italians who arrived from diverse regions of Italy into one uni- fied community. Although Mount Virgin has changed little over the decades, the neighborhood has undergone significant transformation. In 1940 and again in the 1990s, parish families were displaced by t h e c o n s t r u c t i o n o f , a n d later the expansion of, the Mount Baker tunnel, the last leg of I-90, which lies adja- cent to the church. The parish school closed in 1978 and the church sur- vived a few earthquakes. By t h e 1 9 8 0 s , m a n y I t a l i a n - Americans had left the old neighborhood and moved elsewhere in town or to the suburbs. Church attendance at Mount Virgin dropped dramatically. The original f a m i l i e s w h o d r o v e t o church for mass each week started to worry that the his- toric parish would close. B u t n e w i m m i g r a n t groups arrived, breathing new life into the neighbor- h o o d . F i r s t , c a m e L a o , Hmong and Khmu refugees, f l e e i n g p e r s e c u t i o n i n S o u t h e a s t A s i a . T h o s e g r o u p s w e r e f o l l o w e d b y others from Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan and China. Seattle's Native American community found a home there, as well. Most masses today are celebrated in mul- tiple languages, including V i e t n a m e s e , L a o a n d Chinese. Although all public mass- es are currently canceled at Mount Virgin Church due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the church's 105-year history of providing support and com- fort during times of crisis continues to offer the com- munity a beacon of hope. RITA CIPALLA Our Lady of Mount Virgin: the little church with the big heart Only three years after Our Lady of Mount Virgin opened, Seattle and the rest of the world faced the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic (National Archives)

• Cover