San Gennaro donates $81,500 locally

The Feast of San Gennaro, Little Italy’s annual salute to the patron saint of Naples, has donated $81,500 in charitable donations from the 2003 feast.

The largest recipient this year is Most Precious Blood Church, the Mulberry St. parish church that is also the home of the National Shrine of San Gennaro. The church received $50,000 for its annual upkeep and an additional $6,500 to replace a door at the entrance of the church.

Other recipients include St. Patrick’s School on Mott St., Cabrini Hospice on E. 19th St., St. James School on St. James Pl., Transfiguration School on Mott St., the N.Y.U. Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fund, the Minister Provincial at the Franciscan Province of the Immaculate Conception on Thompson St., St. Anne’s Society at Most Precious Blood Church, St. Anthony’s School on MacDougal St. and Variety, a children’s fund.

The annual 11-day Feast in September was begun in 1926 by recent immigrants from Naples.

“The Feast is more than the city’s biggest and best street fair,” said Perry Criscitelli, president of Figli di San Gennaro, Inc., the Feast’s organizing host committee. “It is a religious celebration of the patron saint of Naples and also a means to raise money to support charitable causes in Little Italy and beyond.”