Festival of St Gerard

Saint Gerard Maiella (Majella) has his feast day every 16 October within the Old Ward of Newark New Jersey. The statue that is still honored today was brought from Italy around 1900 and moved into the St Lucy’s Church. Since then, every year the Feast of Saint Gerard has been celebrated because he is the patron saint of mothers, motherhood, childbirth and unborn children. The feast is also a representation of the devote Italian Americans that live within Newark, mostly those in the Old Ward (a.k.a. First Ward) and has expanded over the many years to encompass everyone in the area who wishes to pray for conception and has become a cultural identity for Italian Americans.