From Our History Publication  (1998)

The Parish of Saint Francis de Sales is made up of a diverse group of people from every walk of life. Yet it also has its uniqueness. It has been blessed with four orders of Religious Sisters. It has a high academic tradition. It has had both a Marist and a Diocesan presence. Almost all of the strong Italian presence is from the town of Massalubrense and the isle of Stromboli.
 
Our parish is now 81 years old. I wonder what those early parishioners would have thought of this parish and it's future. What if we could step back to the beginnings of our Parish? We think of those early people in the Bay; O'Regan, O'Brien, Kennedy, Hoskins, Cass, Beveridge, Nichol, and those of Massalubrense and Stromboli; Greco, Basile, Costa, Paino, Barnao and Russo; alla fine del mondo; the ends of the earth; how must they have felt as they dreamed dreams 81 years ago! How important their faith must have been. They were determined to keep it and pass it on to their children and their children's children.
 
How they have succeeded is seen as we look around at the fruits of their toil. We have a beautiful church, presbytery and school. We have many groups and ministries operating.
 
Our task is to keep up what they have started. Not just to hold on to the faith ourselves, but to share it with others so that it will grow like the proverbial mustard seed, until a great tree is formed. The Parish has indeed a lot to offer.
 
Often it can seem that the few do most of the work. An ideal situation would be quite the reverse, a lot of people doing a little each. That is our aim. Thanks to those who use their gifts so well in our Parish. I think of those who do things in quiet ways, e.g. cleaning the brass, as well as those who are more seen to be using their gifts, e.g. musicians, readers. Thanks to all.

The Italian Connection

History of Italians in Island Bay
 
For more than a century the suburb of Island Bay has been linked to immigrants from southern Italy. And for most of those years Italians have been an integral part of St Francis de Sales parish.
 
Italian fishermen began working at Island Bay in the late 1880s alongside the rugged men of the Shetland Islands. Little is known about these men or where they came from but they were not members of the early families who settled in Eastbourne. These were the Russo, Della Barca and Meo brothers who happened on New Zealand from sailing ships more by accident than design, saw the bounty being dragged from the sea and decided to stay. This was the start of chain migration – effectively those who went to a place settling down before summonsing families and friends to the new land. The fishing community at Rona Bay in Eastbourne grew steadily but from the 1930s an increasing number of the small boats moved to the safer protected anchorages of Island Bay which was also close to the rich western fishing grounds.
 
The first of them, Bartolo Russo, and the younger brothers who came later were from the tiny volcanic island of Stromboli which is part of the Aeolian group of islands not far from Sicily. The island’s frequent volcanic eruptions forced its residents to flee, initially to other nearby islands but later to escape poverty to the United States, South America, Australia and New Zealand in search of a better life for their families. Stromboli is made up of tiny villages Fico Grande, Scari, Supaleta, Ginostra and Piscita and the island’s occupants worked hard toiling the soil and fishing. The island was made famous by a 1950 movie of the same name starring Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rosselini, and now draws tourists keen to climb the smouldering mountain.
 
The Della Barca and Meo brothers were from the village town of Massalubrense, located in the Bay of Naples, a 10-minute drive to the tourist town of Sorrento, a 30-minute drive to the ruins of Pompeii and a short boat ride to the island of Capri, famed for its Blue Grotto. Like the villages on Stromboli, Massalubrense has a tiny marina and from there to the top of the hill, among the lemon trees, olive trees and grape vines, are scattered houses and any number of churches, some of them still run by monks.
 
The church was the one constant for Italian immigrants coming to Wellington who faced difficulties in language, culture, food and traditions. At the time Mass was said in Latin in both countries and while the accents were different there was no problem following the faith through attendance at Mass in the churches in Humber Street and The Parade. Many of the first generation immigrants kept to themselves, single men living in a shared hostel-type home, Roma House, in Trent Street (joined frequently by married men to play cards) and families visiting and sharing special occasions such as christenings, first holy communions and marriages.
 
The immigrant community was such that while they shared the same language (if not the same dialects) there was not a lot of social contact and little intermarriage between the Neopolitans and the Strombolani. Those who cared to, joined the Garibaldi Club which was founded in 1882 (and is still active in Wellington today) where they could enjoy each other’s company, a glass of wine and a game of indoor bowls.
 
The Italian immigrants in Island Bay belonged to large families where the men would emigrate first, work for anything from one to 25 years, sending money home and save before calling for their wives and children to join them or going back to Italy to find a wife. These included the names of Barnao, Paino, Di Mattina, Famularo and Tesoriero from Stromboli and Basile, Volpicelli, Muollo and Greco from the area around Massalubrense.
 
Ministering to the Italian flock was left to the parish priest and his assistants but on a number of occasions Italian priests, mostly based in Australia, conducted one to four-week missions in the Bay which were well attended.
 
The women had a strong commitment to the church and have always taken a role in the feast of the Assumption, an important day back in Italy. The men enjoyed singing and one or two could be persuaded to sing at Mass. A group would often go from house to house singing Christmas carols and traditional Italian favourites, a practice that died in the 1960s. When the rosary statue was introduced in the 1960s many Italian families would make a home for Our Lady and say the rosary twice daily.
 
A monthly Mass said in the Italian language was introduced in the 1980s with the celebrant usually the secretary to the Papal representative based in Wellington.