Fra Noi Embrace Your Inner Italian
The Global Penitent, a Substack blog focused on Catholic history and traditions, has ranked the Feast of Maria SS. Lauretana among the top 10 Italian feasts in the country.
“A distinctive feature is the ‘Flight of the Angels,’ a tradition brought from Sicily dating back centuries,” the post notes. “This dramatic ceremony has become the feast’s signature event. This feast is one of two that still maintain this tradition.”
During the flight, young girls dressed as angels are suspended above an enthroned painting of the Madonna and Child, where they sing a song of praise to her in Italian.
Celebrating 126 years of continuous devotion to the Blessed Mother, the feast will take place over Labor Day weekend on Church Street between Greenwood and Cumberland Avenues in Niles, on the south side of Golf Mill Shopping Center.
The feast has flourished in Niles for the last 12 years, after enjoying a four-decade run behind Cermak Plaza shopping center in Berwyn. The celebration was held for more than 60 years in the San Filippo Benizi Parish in Chicago’s Little Sicily neighborhood on the city’s Near North Side, then moved from place to place for several years when the neighborhood was razed to make room for the Cabrini-Green housing project.
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