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The Annunciation B.V.M. parish community has taken big efforts into a small space to create a haven from the hustle and bustle of urban life with the city’s first rosary-prayer garden.
Making its debut June 16, The Rosary and St. Pio Prayer Garden on the church’s property at 1511 South St. is open to the public from dawn to dusk, a blessing to a community that was otherwise left to pray and reflect outside the locked church if Mass was not in session.
Parish Council President Eugene VanArsdale said the idea for the garden just popped into his head in the spring of 2006 after the September celebration of St. Pio during the parish’s nine-day novena and festival. Since the closest space dedicated to the saint is in Landisville, N.J., VanArsdale saw an opportunity to bring him closer.
The parish was resistant when he first presented the idea in April ’06, but after several meetings and several months of thinking and praying on the part of Annunciation’s the Rev. Gary Pacitti, approval was given to make headway on what VanArsdale and many others now describe as a sanctuary.
"Father Pacitti had enough courage to allow us to do what we’ve done, and that took a lot of courage to do for the simple reason that none of us are professional engineers or architects or construction people," VanArsdale said. "But we were very lucky for all the things that came together."
VanArsdale came up with the design that was executed by landscape artist Joseph A. Pinkey, a cousin of committee member Mary Hardy. The garden’s centerpiece is a statue of the Blessed Mother surrounded by a heart 60 feet in diameter and consisting of more than 50 pieces of engraved granite — symbolizing the beads of the rosary — and a four-foot cross. Several benches are located within the heart.
On the north wall, The Stations of the Cross adorn the top of a brick walkway used as a guide for each station. This leads to a statue of the Crucified Christ, more engraved bricks and into the back of the garden where a life-size statue of St. Pio, who was the first priest to show signs of stigmata, and several more benches sit.
Flowers and plants also are scattered throughout, replacing the blocks of cement and shrubs that filled the 4,500 square-foot space prior to the garden’s existence.
Ground broke in April 2007 when Local 592 Cement Mason and Plasters Union leveled the land, knocked out existing pavement and laid the foundation for the rosary heart. Once the centerpiece was set, VanArsdale, Hardy and garden committee members Mario Mangini and Cathy Sampere got to work on laying out the rest of the garden and taking orders to memorialize the granite and bricks. As time went on, more of the community, including non-parishioners, began to join in by painting, laying bricks and planting.
VanArsdale said there were several incidents where commitments from professionals and volunteers fell through, but someone was always willing to step up.
"We say it’s like angels just fell out of the sky and helped us get it done," he said.
Committee members and volunteers worked tirelessly over the next several weeks to complete the project many sometimes doubted would finish within the six-week span of May 5 to June 16.
"The famous saying of people walking by was ‘Are you sure it’s going to be done?’" VanArsdale said. To which he always replied, "Yes, it will be done."
The last bricks were laid just before Mass June 16, the day of dedication as well as the day Padre Pio was proclaimed St. Pio of Pietrelcina — the town in Italy where he lived and, coincidentally, the town where both his statue and the crucifix in the garden were handmade.
Two hundred people turned out for the dedication at the nearly 200-year-old church, where each piece in the garden was blessed, and since then the spot rarely sees an hour pass without several visitors.
Many come every day, like Rocco Stanco from the 600 block of Cross Street, who’s been a B.V.M. parishioner for 76 years.
"It’s a wonderful parish, I come [to the church] every Sunday and come [to the garden] almost every day," he said after praying to St. Pio and lighting a candle.
Others, like John and Merinda Pietrafitta, come because of their devotion to St. Pio. "[John] prays a lot to Padre Pio, for years now," Merinda said.
Before the garden, the couple occasionally would drive to the St. Pio shrine in New Jersey. Now, only having to take a short walk from their home on the 1100 block of Latona Street, they make the trip a few times a week.
"It’s a nice place to come and just be alone," John said.
"Even though you have all this activity around you, it’s just a nice quiet little nook," Merinda added.
The gates are locked at dusk, but with the freedom to come and go, some expressed concern over vandalism. VanArsdale said, while the subject has crossed his mind, he’s not worried.
"Worrying is a sign of no faith," he said. "Can something happen? Sure. We’ve had the inside of the church vandalized. If it happens, we’ll fix it.
"I focus on the person who comes up and says ‘thank you’ and I don’t know them."
The garden is unique as it was built at no cost to the parish. Services and many materials were donated, and the funds needed to pay for the granite benches from China, statues from Italy, bricks, granite beads and other elements were and continue to be generated from those wishing to memorialize stones with inscriptions.
"The costs were more personal than anything else," VanArsdale said. "At the end of the day it was just regular people doing extraordinary things," he said.
Now the good nature of the parish will benefit the 1,140 member families, as well as anyone passing by.
Rose Babbas of the 1000 block of Greenwich Street, a neighbor of the church, stops outside the fence at the point of the rosary heart. "I always stop, I like to stop right here," she said.
Oftentimes, VanArsdale said passing cars will slam on their breaks, not expecting to see such a peaceful place next to the steady stream of traffic.
"Even if you’re not Catholic — if you came here and believed in nothing — you wouldn’t leave the same way you came," VanArsdale said. "It touches everyone who walks in here."
This, the committee members agree, is the ultimate validation for the garden — an innovation they hope will be imitated throughout the city.
"Philadelphia should have one of these on every corner like in the old days when there used to be a mom-and-pop store on every corner," VanArsdale said.
"There is not one family in South Philadelphia that does not have some kind of heartache, be it sickness, drugs, alcoholism or abuse. So this is a refuge, a place you can come and be peaceful," Hardy said.
VanArsdale, taking a moment to stop and listen to the sweet songs filling the garden, added with a smile, "I dare you to go somewhere else [in the city] and hear birds chirp all the time."
