In honor of their grandmothers who were devotees of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Mary Ann and Francis Blattermann, residents of Little Italy, donated a beautiful Our Lady of Mount Carmel statue to St. Leo's Church. The statue will rest in a permanent niche in the back of the church near the elevator. When she was a child, Mary Ann Blattermann said her "grandmothers were very devoted" to the Our Lady of Mount Carmel. "They prayed to her often. One of them actually requested to be laid out [at her funeral] in the habit of the Carmelites, but that was not possible." Her grandmothers were Antonina D'Amico from Sicily, Italy; and Angelina Vasta from Milan, Italy.

Fran's grandmothers were Maria Concetta (nee Mariella) Napolillo, born in Larino, Prov. Compobasso, Italy; and Rosa (nee Mihalek) Blattermann who was Hungarian and raised in a small town outside of Vienna, Austria. The Blattermanns, both natives of Little Italy, said Fr. Sal Furnari, pastor, selected the statue for the church. The couple has been lifelong parishioners of St. Leo's where they were married 43 years ago and had received all of their childhood Sacraments there as well.

Source: Promotion Center for Little Italy