Piece of the past

Rare statue of St. Nicholas is part of church and Valley history

By LINDA M. LINONIS

religion@vindy.com

youngstown

Historians and histo- ry buffs are interconnected by their interest.

Such is the case among Richard Scarsella, Sacred Places Dialogue facilitator, president of William Holmes McGuffey Historical Society and member of the Ethnic Heritage Society; Richard Quinn, historian for Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), Joseph T. Nelly Division 6; and Thomas G. Welsh, a member of the Ethnic Heritage Society and Steel Valley Voices and an independent scholar who earned his doctorate in cultural foundations of education.

Scarsella said he and Welsh are connected through the Ethnic Heritage Society and Welsh knew Quinn because of his wide-ranging research. Quinn received state AOH awards for his research in 2003 and 2011. He did extensive research on Leo Casey, born in 1893 in Brier Hill, a relative of Welsh with whom he shared the information. Quinn also researched his great-grandfather James “Pat” Quinn.

What brought the three together is a 3-foot-2-inch, 25-pound plaster statue of St. Nicholas.

Quinn explained the statue has been with his family since 1955. He said it was given to his grandfather, Mike Szalaj, by Sister Beckman, a nun at St. Casimir Church on Jefferson Street in Brier Hill. “He was deeply religious,” Quinn said of his relative, who had the statue in his bedroom for years then displayed it in the hallway of the family’s home. The family has a long history with St. Casimir’s Church, where they were members. The statue came to the Quinn family about the time that the church was undergoing a remodeling in the mid 1950s.

James Quinn figures in the history of Youngtown as a musician — in a musical group that went by various names such as Catholic Band, Youngstown Military Band and Youngstown City Band — and as safety director for police and fire. “He hired the first black detective in the city,” Quinn said of his ancestor, who also was involved in the “motorization” of the fire department from four-legged horsepower to four-wheeled horsepower.

The statue has remained in the family but is earmarked for another “home,” Quinn said. His mother, Stella Szalaj Quinn, 93, who lived in Brier Hill all her life is downsizing and relocating to other living arrangements. He described his mother as a “collector.”

The men said the St. Nicholas statue will be at one of three organizations — the Ethnic Heritage Society, Mahoning Valley Historical Society’s Ethnic Heritage Society collection at the new History Center or St. Casimir Social and History Center, a project that is “in the works.” The Ethnic Heritage Society was founded in 2007 by the Rev. Joseph Rudjak.

Wherever it goes, the rare statue will be appreciated and admired as the historic artifact and piece of Valley history that it is. Scarsella and Welsh said the history of churches are so intertwined with the history of the Valley, it is important to preserve that part of the past.

The statue is stamped Daprato Manufacturing, a company in the Chicago area. Quinn said there is no date on the statue. The figure of St. Nicholas wears a miter, the official headdress of a bishop in the Western Church; St. Nicholas also is venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church. “The statue represents the distinctive Polish cultural and attention to old world traditions,” Scarsella said. “St. Nicholas was venerated in Poland.”

This statue shows St. Nicholas with four apples on a Bible. The men said St. Nicholas is often shown with three golden globes, which once was the symbol for pawn shops. St. Nicholas is the patron of pawn brokers, along with children, sailors and ships and prisoners. The men said though the apples aren’t typical of the depiction, the statue is clearly St. Nicholas.

In his mother’s collection, Quinn also discovered a book on the lives of the saints from 1927. It has an embossed cover, colored prints and is in Polish.

Scarsella credited the Quinn family with preserving a part of the past, which they now are sharing with the community. “As historians, we want to identify, evaluate, investigate, preserve and place artifacts for future generations,” he said. But, he noted, to do so requires the cooperation, diligence and foresight of families, churches and community organizations to preserve and share histories and artifacts.

Scarsella and Welsh said the St. Nicholas statue is an example of what’s important to preserve as churches in the diocese collaborate, merge and close. Catholic churches and those of other denominations are intrinsically tied to the history of the Valley because of the ethnicity of the immigrants who founded them.

Welsh said collecting histories of churches provides insight into the past. The Ethnic Heritage Society, he said, is working on an oral history project in connection with the diocese downsizing. Among interviews with the Bishop George V. Murry of the diocese and the Rev. Kevin Peters of the merged Immaculate Conception and Sacred Heart parishes.

“People sometimes confuse history with nostalgia,” he said, adding that they are intertwined but two different things. “History reflects the past in a way that allows us to move forward with great confidence as a community,” Welsh said.

“The preservation of history and artifacts are an important part of a community’s identity,” he said.

Scarsella and Welsh serve on the six-member cultural and history advisory committee formed as part of the Diocese of Youngstown’s Parish Implementation Plan, the process of collaboration, mergers and closings that are part of the downsizing of the diocese. St. Casimir ,the original home of the St. Nicholas statue, has merged with St. Columba Cathedral and St.Stanislaus Church.

Scarsella, historic-preservation promoter, is the man behind Sacred Places Dialogue, a movement focused on how to preserve or re- invent sacred sites that have served as houses of worship and gathering places for ethnic groups. Sacred Places promotes dialogue among interested parties concerning threatened or now-closed denominational buildings on how to preserve and re-use religious structures based on historic value, demographics, economics, level of support, fundraising, authentic assessment and educational connections and other factors.