Fra Noi Embrace Your Inner Italian
Maria SS. della Croce di Triggiano is going all out for the 100th anniversary of its festa with a series of celebrations this fall.
Society president Rocco Scavo says the celebration will be expanded to accommodate the special anniversary with around 80 guests flying in from Triggiano, Bari, where the members trace their roots.
Scavo was born in Triggiano, a town of around 26,000 people in the Puglia region of southern Italy who embrace the Blessed Mother as their patroness. He often returns for the festa, a three-day affair each September that draws tens of thousands of people.
While addressing an audience of dignitaries last year in Triggiano, he invited them to attend his society’s 100th anniversary festivities, which went over very well.
“I asked ‘Who wants to come celebrate with us’ and a lot of people cheered,” Scavo says. “It’s going to include many city hall offical as well as the mayor of the town and the priest of the town.”
The visit will be just the latest in a long history or collaboration between Triggiano and Addison. A Sister City agreement was established between the two towns in 2003 and delegations from both places have crossed the ocean to visit their counterparts ever since. In 2007, the first student exchange took place when a group of Addison middle schoolers immersed themselves in Italy for two weeks.
To launch this year’s festivities, a Proclamation Mass at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in Melrose Park will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Sept. 6. A 7 p.m. Novena will run at Casa Scalabrini in Northlake from September 18-26.
Festivities will culminate on Oct. 3 with a Mass, procession and gala. Usually held at Casa Scalabrini in Northlake, the noon Mass will be celebrated for the first time at St. Philip the Apostle Church in Addison. The Mass will be followed by a procession through the streets of Addison and then a feast at The Empress Banquets in Addison at 6 p.m.
A reception for guests from Italy will be held the next day at Casa Italia in Stone Park. The delegation will also be invited to ride on the group’s float during the Columbus Day Parade on Oct. 12, Scavo says.
Led by society founder Mike Nardulli, the group held its first festa in 1926 in the Santa Maria Addolorata Parish on Chicago’s Near Northwest Side, where many emigrants from Triggiano originally settled. Scavo says the early festas were lavish affairs that went on for days, as they still do in Triggiano. But over the decades, descendants of the original members moved away from the neighborhood and the festa went on hiatus. But it was revived and has been celebrated annually at Villa Scalabrini in Northlake for more than two decades.
Scavo says descendants of Michael Nardulli are expected to attend this year’s 100th anniversary celebration.
Scavo is in his first three-year term as the group’s president with a second term starting next year. He’s been a dedicated member of the group more than a decade and a half, and previously served as vice president.
His goal as president is to try to get more young people involved. “I’m 72 years old but at least I feel young,” Scavo says. “We have close to 200 members at the moment and we are trying to do better than that.”
“We are trying to stay here another 100 years,” he adds.
Scavo moved to America when he was 20 years and made his career in auto repair. He still owns Superior Transmission in downtown Aurora and previously owned shops in Bellwood and Downers Grove.
Scavo passion for the society was inspired by a near-tragedy during his term as vice president in 2020. He was driving to Addison city hall for a society board meeting when he began feeling ill and heard a sudden voice in his head telling him that he needed to go to the hospital. He sped several miles to Endeavor Health Edward Hospital in Naperville, where the doctors told him he was having a heart attack.
“The doctor told me I was crazy to drive to the hospital while having a heart attack,” Scavo says. “But the doctor said I’m glad you did because I only had five minutes left to live.”
“I like to think the Madonna helped me out,” Scavo says. “I firmly believe that.”
