As Frank Cipolloni led dozens of parishioners from St. Leo the Great Church through the streets of Baltimore's Little Italy, he carried the memory of his father with him. Cipolloni's father, who died in 2002, had participated in the church's annual Feast of St. Anthony celebration for about 50 years. Cipolloni hopes his four grandsons will too take part in the procession and festival for years to come.　

"This is all about tradition," said 66-year-old Cipolloni, secretary of the St. Anthony's Society. The tradition began following 1904's Great Baltimore Fire. Residents of Little Italy, fearing for their homes as the flames roared toward their neighborhood, prayed to St. Anthony to save them, said St. Anthony's Society President Jerry Elliott.