Mother Cabrini and Newark’s first Italian parochial school
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, whose feast day is November 13, remains a cherished part of the Italian American story. Many people may not realize that she left a mark in New Jersey, however, founding the first parochial school dedicated to serving the Italian immigrant community in the then-Diocese of Newark.
The school was founded at the city’s Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish. Founded in 1890 as a national parish for the Italian community of Newark, it was led at the time by Monsignor Ernest D’Aquila, an experienced educator who had taught French in Syria and music in Italian seminaries.
A parish history from 1940 reads:
“It is to him, in truth, that we owe the foundation of the first Italian parochial school in the Diocese of Newark, opened in 1899, when he had the providential occasion to trust it to that zealous apostle of religion and patriotism, the Blessed Mother Cabrini.”
According to Mother Cabrini, the conditions that the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus had to work in were far from ideal, as she wrote in the following account:
“Everything was lacking, there were no comforts of any kind, but there were Italian sisters who spoke their [the children’s] language. The children sensed that they were loved by them and were happy and faithful to their poor classrooms. Soon attendance rose to 200, then 300, then 400. Many had no desks, no chairs, but it wasn’t important, they were at the school of the Italian sisters, and this was enough for them.”
A long and arduous project
The school was located in the church’s basement. Though it proved unsustainable “due to the poor adaptability of its premises,” the attempt was a success in one sense, because it showed that the Italian families desired a good education for their children. Monsignor D’Aquila “was not discouraged,” therefore, but kept diligently working toward his goal.
He “acquired some houses at Commerce and Market Streets, (and) after several years he established a second school under the tutelage of the Reverend Pallottine Sisters.” That school, too, had to close due to an increase of traffic in the neighborhood that made a school impracticable.
Finally, with the encouragement of Bishop Thomas J. Walsh, in 1928 the parish converted a building at 269-271 Oliver Street into a proper school building, also constructing a convent next door for the Pallottines. When the time came to build a new church for the parish, it was constructed nearby. The school served the parish and area for nearly eight decades until its closure in the mid-2000s.
A woman of many good works
Though that first school started by Mother Cabrini was not sustainable, it gave hundreds of children an introduction to learning and became the seed that, once it took root and bore fruit, led to the education of thousands of other children in the ensuing years.
It also introduced Mother Cabrini to the Italian immigrants of Newark and their needs. When she saw that there were many orphans in the community, she opened the St. Anthony’s Villa Orphan Asylum in 1903. That work proved to be more immediately successful. In fact, in 1912 a new building had to be constructed and a year later a chapel and school were added.
That structure is now the Redemptoris Mater Seminary, with Mother Cabrini as its patroness. She is also, of course, the patron saint of immigrants.
Editor’s note: Our thanks to Brianna LoSardo, archivist for the Archdiocese of Newark, and Eric Lavin, director of the archdiocese’s Italian Apostolate, for their assistance in researching this article.
