Fr. Don Malin, Pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish, with new statue installed. Photo by Susana Arellano
Closeup of Statue in Niche. Photo by Fr. Don Malin
The front of Mt. Carmel Church has received an uplifting addition in the form of a new image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church on Clark Street in the Grove neighborhood was built in 1901 to service Pueblo’s growing Italian population.
Prior to that St. Patrick’s on Michigan Street was the only Catholic Church in Pueblo which primarily served Pueblo’s Irish Catholics. It was a true labor of love and hard work to scrape together, sufficient funding to build Mt. Carmel that took many years to bring to fruition.
Between 1890 and 1924 approximately 4 million Italians immigrated to the United States with many of them coming to Pueblo to work in the numerous mines of southern Colorado and at the CF&I Steel Mill. Although it’s not documented, it would appear that between the financial struggles of constructing Mt. Carmel Church and the devastating flood of 1921 and the great depression of 1929 a proper statue was never placed in the niche over the doorway of the church.
That has all changed since a new custom-made statue of our lady of Mt. Carmel was installed on Tuesday, August 13, 2024. The statue was fabricated in Columbia South America and the cost of the statue, and its installation, was donated by the estate of Rose Paglione Merrill, whose entire family were parishioners of Mt. Carmel Church for many years. The next time you’re in the Grove neighborhood, please be sure to drive by and see the beautiful new statue in its new home.
By Jim Koncilja and Rev. Don Malin, Pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Pueblo
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