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| October 6, 2008 |
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Fourth–graders build and feast on St. Joseph altarStudents learn about Sicilian Catholic tradition. 
AMY FERRARA SMITH | FC PENSACOLA | Ten-year-old Jimmy Richardson shoved his fork back into his bowl of pasta. “It’s good,” he assured, his red-haired head bobbing up and down. Together with his fourth-grade classmates at St. John the Evangelist School in Pensacola, Jimmy ate the colorful and eclectic display of food that decorated the St. Joseph altar March 13. “My maternal great-grandmother did it for years,” said Father Joseph Callipare, pastor of St. John the Evangelist Parish and the fourth-grade religion teacher at the church. When he and his students had reached the story of St. Joseph in the Lent chapter of the fourth-grade religion book, Father Callipare shared with them his memories of his Sicilian family’s St. Joseph altars, decorated structures which honor the saint’s feast day of March 19. The students’ interest in the tradition inspired their teacher to organize their own creation of an altar. “It’s been really fun,” said fourth-grader David Lagos. “We got to use hammers and power screwdrivers.” With the help of volunteer parents, the students built the three-tier structure and then draped it in white cloth. “We nailed the pieces together and put sheetrock on the sides,” said Jimmy, who spoke with the ease and knowledge of a carpenter. “For the little table, we put plywood on top. But the St. Joseph statue was a half-inch too tall on the top table, so we had to put him in front.” After helping to cook, the students decorated the altar with steaming pasta and home-baked breads, which they molded into the shapes of crosses, hammers and wreaths. True to his Sicilian heritage, Father Callipare made certain that the students understood the tradition behind the building of the altar. During the Middle Ages, Sicily suffered from a drought that affected crops and agriculture on the Italian island. The Sicilians pleaded to their patron, St. Joseph, for a respite in the famine. Soon after, it began to rain, which they attributed to St. Joseph’s mercy. Thus, the Sicilians showed gratitude to their patron through the Italian tradition of cooking a bounty of food and sharing it with the less fortunate. This became known as the St. Joseph altar. “Hundreds of years ago,” said David, “poor people came to the table to get food. They had spaghetti and bread.” Ten-year-old Kristin Quina said she helped to crack the eggs to cook the omelets for the feast. “Father Joe said that (the altar tradition started) hundreds of years ago. There is no meat because it is during Lent. They had spaghetti, omelets, bread and some desserts.” Another tradition that Father Callipare shared with his students is the important role family plays in the feast day. To symbolize this, Father Callipare chose Mackenzie Helmick to act as Mary, Josef Pezdirtz to portray Joseph and D.J. Stearns to represent Jesus. “Mary, Joseph and Jesus are holding this little dinner for St. Joseph for all that he’s done,” explained Mackenzie. The children who dressed as members of the Holy Family first served their classmates before eating their own lunch. “I want them to learn about a Catholic custom from another country,” said Father Callipare. “It started out of thanksgiving for the end of a famine. And, you know, Joseph is my patron.”
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