114 Year Old Tradition Returns To Little Italy Church

NEW YORK - Oct. 14, 2015 - PRLog -- The Craco Society announces the feast of San Vincenzo, Martire di Craco will be held at the Shrine Church of the Most Precious Blood after a 113 year hiatus.

The Craco Society, a non-profit organization seeking to preserve the culture, traditions, and history of Craco, a southern Italian hill town located in the Province of Matera and the region of Basilicata, will be celebrating the 114^th feast of San Vincenzo Martire di Craco on October 25^th. In 1901, the first recorded celebration of this feast day was held outside the Most Precious Blood Church while it was under construction. The society sponsoring the celebration then became associated with St. Joachim’s Church on Roosevelt St. With the closing of that church the feast was celebrated at St. Joseph’s Church on Monroe St. until it closed this July.

The feast of San Vincenzo joins the San Rocco Feast, the oldest in New York, and the San Gennaro Feast, the largest, both based at the Shrine Church of the Most Precious Blood. In addition to those feasts the church is also the home to several other historic societies including St. Anthony, Beato Angelo D'Acri, Sts. Cosmo & Damiano and San Francesco de Paolo. This October 25^th features the celebration of two saints’ feasts on the same day, San Vincenzo Martire di Craco and Beato Angelo d’ Acri, something that has not happened in Little Italy in decades.

The Craco Society, as part of its mission to preserve the culture, traditions, and history of Craco, Italy in North America, preserves and maintains the 114 year old statue of San Vincenzo in New York and his relic that dates to 286AD. Transported from Craco in 1901 it is the only primary relic permanently on display at the Most Precious Blood Church. The Society believes the feast of San Vincenzo is the second oldest Italian feast celebrated in New York.

The Shrine Church of the Most Precious Blood at 113 Baxter St. will be the venue for a significant display of a Neapolitan presepio this Christmas season and will also be one of the few sites of Holy Doors during the 2016 Jubilee Year to be announced by Pope Francis on Dec. 8th.