Three devotions

 

 

Saint Donato

The Lalor community’s passion for the Feast of Saint Donato is unwavering.

San Donato was a medieval Saint famed for performing miracles, such as bringing a woman back to life, giving sight to the blind and killing dragons. In Italy, La Festa di San Donato celebrates the anniversary of the death of this Saint through the parading of effigies through the streets. The San Donato Association of Lalor celebrates with a Mass and colourful procession around St Luke's Church, followed by opera performances from the Banda Bellini in the Church Hall.

Donato Polvere, 78, said he was grateful to be still ­organising the event after so many years, with the ­ongoing support of his wife Maria and the San ­Donato Association of Lalor ­committee.

“This my life, for me it’s about the community and doing this together,” Mr Polvere said.

Feast of Saint Donato, 1.30pm, August 12, St Luke’s Church, Lalor.

 

Saint Padre Pio de Petralcina

 

Padre Pio is a venerated Saint in the Catholic Church and the anniversary of his death is celebrated all over the world. Everyone is welcome to celebrate this occasion with a Mass, followed by a procession around St. Luke's Church grounds. Celebrations will continue with cultural performances, and refreshments will be served in the Church Hall.

The suburb’s large Italian community gathered first for a mass and then followed a huge golden statue of the saint around St Luke’s Primary School’s grounds. It was the fourth time La Festa di San Padre Pio has been held in Lalor.

The festival began when Bundoora couple Biagio and Carmela Patti commissioned a statue of the saint from an artist in Padre Pio’s home town of San Giovanni Rotondo in southern Italy.

The couple shipped the statue back in 2000 and gifted it to St Luke’s Church, where it now has pride of place in a shrine off the main nave.

The Patti family moved from Sicily to Bundoora in 1959 “for a better life”.

The festival provided an important connection to their homeland for people who migrated here after WWII. “This saint … tells you these people are connected to their faith and where they were born.”

 

Madonna SS. della Madonna della Catena

 

On September , we celebrate the Madonna della Catena, whose precious statue is carried through the yard of Saint Luke church in a blaze of celebrating crowd.

The devotion to the Virgin of the Chain dates back to the time of King Martin II of Aragon (1400), when he besieged the art traitor of Aragon locked up in the castle of Aci. The population suffered from the abuses of the owner of the fief and the threats of the King Martin to those who were hostile to him. Known of the miracle occurred in Palermo on August 18, 1392 in the church of S. Maria del Porto, namely that the Madonna had broken the chains of three poor condemned to death and King Martino had acquitted the offenders released by Our Lady, the people addressed his prayers to Our Lady of the Chain to free them, and Mary heard them.

The Image of the Madonna, preserved inside the Saint Luke’s Church of Maria SS. of the Chain, although it does not seem exact in its proportions, the Child holding in his arms is a true jewel of art for its natural expression, because of that little hand that, holding the golden chain in hand, seems to want to chain the hearts of the children to bring it closer to that of the mother.