The Feast of Maria SS. Incoronata is a testimony to the power of faith. The celebration has survived for a century and a quarter at the same location, despite the transformation of the community from a thriving Italian enclave into one of the nation’s premier Chinatowns. First celebrated in 1897, the feast was launched to help organize immigrants from the town of Ricigliano who were gravitating to the neighborhood.

The feast came first, and the church was built a few years later. As the neighborhood changed, the parish name morphed from Santa Maria Incoronata, to St. Therese Chinese Catholic Mission in 1963 and St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta in 2019, but the celebration has endured.