New saint in city
Cabrini statue unveiled in Battery Pk.
It didn’t rain on this parade.
Steady showers pounded the city for most of Monday, but New York’s virtual Columbus Day Parade went off without a hitch as Gov. Cuomo unveiled a new statue of Mother Cabrini, the patron saint of immigrants, in the shadow of Lady Liberty.
Just a year after Cabrini was snubbed by a mayoral commission looking to honor important women with statues, Cuomo pulled the red tarp off Manhattan’s newest monument, a bronze sculpture in Battery Park, just a ferry ride away from the iconic Statue of Liberty.
“There was no doubt that she deserved it,” Cuomo, New York’s Italian-American governor, said in front of flags of the U.S., New York and Italy. “New Yorkers wanted to memorialize her. We did it. The sculptors brought it to life and did a magnificent, magnificent job.”
Cuomo, the parade’s grand marshal, led the Cabrini charge after City Hall chose to honor other women, even though Cabrini received the most nominations for a monument from the public.
De Blasio was invited to Monday’s statue unveiling but skipped town for Massachusetts. His spokesman did not answer a request for comment on the event.
Mother Frances Cabrini, who lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, organized catechism and education classes for Italian immigrants and provided for the needs of many orphans. Her new statue stands behind the Museum of Jewish Heritage.
Cuomo said the honor was especially fitting given the current circumstances.
“Today, the lesson of Mother Cabrini is even more vital because of the difficulties we are facing,” he said, noting the coronavirus crisis. “Saints are often forged in the crucible of adversity.
“She came into New York at a time of smallpox, typhoid and tuberculosis,” the governor added.
Sculptors Giancarlo Biagi and Jill Burkee worked since March through quarantine on the massive sculpture, saying they retreated to Loveland, Colo., to work on their creation.
They were originally supposed to work on the piece in their studio in Italy, but the pandemic had other plans.
“We were very isolated,” Biagi said. “We never went out. We just worked on the sculpture. It was a win-win situation, even during the pandemic.”
Biagi, who has been working with Burkee since 1975, said they are glad to be finally done.
“For us, it’s a big relief,” Biagi said. “We’ve been very tense making this thing happen. We’ve had so much adrenaline. We put everything we could in it.”
The parade kicked off with a feed of superstar opera singer Andrea Bocelli signing the Italian national anthem in Tuscany and included videotaped remarks from Dr. Anthony Fauci, the federal government’s leading COVID expert.