You could begin a history of Saint Mary’s Church in July 1938, when Bishop Keogh blessed the newly erected church building on Cranston Street in Knightsville.
You could also go back to 1925, when Reverend Cesare Schettini began presiding over the newly established parish. Or maybe you’d want to start in 1922, when Rev. Schettini first began conducting Mass for Italian-speaking Catholics in the basement of nearby St. Anne’s Church.
The story could also begin in the early 1900s, when immigrants from the Italian village of Itri first settled in Knightsville.
Or you could go back to 1527, the year of a great plague that spread through central Italy. Most of the people from Itri (known as Itranis) were killed by the plague, though the village was ultimately spared, which many credit to a miracle.
And according to new documentary The Heart of Knightsville, a procession of believers carried a portrait of Mary and Jesus throughout the town, a dark cloud cleared over the sky, and the plague was lifted, sparing the Itrani from further death and suffering.
Since then, the Itrani people have celebrated La Madonna Della Civita every year in July, a tradition that has continued in Cranston for over a century.
Or you could go back even further…
“This history dates back to the eighth century,” exclaimed Bernadette Conte, a lifelong parishioner of St. Mary’s and Knightsville resident.
If you go back that far, the feast was inspired by a reported miracle in Itri where, according to legend, a deaf mute shepherd regained his speech after discovering a painting of the Madonna in a tree. The painting was believed to have been painted by St. Luke.
Conte has studied and researched the history of St. Mary’s since 1975. “The pastor asked if I could write the history for the parish’s 50th anniversary,” she said in February during the 100th birthday celebration in the parish hall.
In 2014, she published the book Eviva Maria: Madonna della Civita, and more recently it has been adapted into the documentary film The Heart of Knightsville. Conte is an executive producer of the documentary. The film’s release was timed to coincide with the 120th annual Devotion to Madonna Della Civita, more commonly known as Saint Mary’s Feast.
According to the book’s back cover, the story is a “moving account of the history that explores the difficult but enduring ties between the sister cities of Itri and Cranston…”
Conte wrote as part of its introduction, “I am proud to say my roots stem from Itri, Italy, and my parents and grandparents gave me a heritage no one can take away.”
Italian immigration began in earnest in the 1880s and intensified in the early 1900s. By 1920, one out of nine Rhode Islanders was either Italian-born or descended. At the time, Rhode Island had many jobs for so-called unskilled workers in mills, construction, and the textiles industries, jobs that didn’t require reading ability or fluent English.
The founding of the parish is the story of discrimination against an immigrant community. Italians in the early 1900s were fleeing poor economic and health conditions in their homeland, with many moving to different mill towns in Rhode Island. The Itrani landed in Knightsville, and soon they held most of the jobs at Cranston Print Works, according to Anne T. Romano’s 2007 book Distant but Loyal: Cranston’s Italian Americans.
But the Italians clashed with French-Canadian and especially Irish Catholics whose traditions and languages were different. Many Knightsville residents walked to St. Rocco’s Church in Johnston to hear masses in Italian, rather than listen to the English sermons at the Irish St. Ann’s Church also in Knightsville. Italians at St. Ann’s were discriminated against and spied upon, says Conte, until they eventually convinced the diocese to allow an Italian parish in Cranston.
“Their stories are heartbreaking,” Conte says, having interviewed many of the church’s original members over the years.
The Knightsville celebration of Mary predates the church. On Sunday, July 20, the parish will mark its 120th year for the procession. Initially, the Devotion involved barefoot women dressed in all black, girls in first communion dresses and boys dressed in their Saint Anthony robes. Today, the procession is the centerpiece of a much larger event that blends the sacred and the secular. Some people come for the Mass and the procession down Cranston Street, while others come for the rides, the fireworks, and the sausage and pepper sandwiches.
“If you saw an aerial shot on the Sunday of the feast, you’d see tens of thousands of people flooding the area, all because a few people decided to start a church here,” said Tom DeNucci, The Heart of Knightsville director.
The documentary packs a lot of information into its 43-minute runtime.
“We get into some of the miracles,” DeNucci said. “There’s also the story of a statue that Bernadette uncovered in a basement after almost a hundred years. I really tried to pack in as many stories as I could.”
There are indeed many stories packed into this narrative: a blind shepherd, a miraculous painting, Brazilian monks, the bombing of Itri in 1944 by American forces hunting Nazis in the town, as well as more personal stories about Conte’s son and how her home unexpectedly became a sort of shrine for decades.
“There are a lot of anniversaries happening,” Conte says. “One hundred years for the parish, and then in 2027 it will be five hundred years for the miracle in Itri.”
The film includes photos, archival videos, and interviews with notables from St. Mary’s Feast Society. Interestingly, the documentary also uses generative artificial intelligence (AI) images to fill in some visual gaps, depicting everything from an eighth century miracle to what Conte looked like in 1975.
“She was probably skeptical at first,” DeNucci says about Conte’s image being illustrated by AI. He says, though, that in five or ten years he suspects AI will be so common in movies that no one will think about it anymore.
Conte interviewed several directors about bringing the Itrani story to the screen, but she knew DeNucci was right for the part. So much so that she crashed his set, visiting Durfee’s Hardware where he was filming a scene for the thriller Seclusion.
Though he grew up in Cranston and made his confirmation at St. Mary’s, DeNucci initially declined to work on the project because he was so busy with other projects. Then the Writers Guild of America strike happened, with screenwriters screeching filmmaking operations to a halt for nearly five months in 2023. Suddenly, DeNucci had free time.
“I truly believe this Lady chose Tom to do the film,” Conte says, pointing to a photo of the statue of Mary.
DeNucci is known more for action thrillers like the Providence-set Vault (2019) and the more recent Play Dirty (2025), but he has directed several documentaries before, most recently Knock Out Blonde: The Kellie Maloney Story, which is about the transgender British promoter known for guiding boxer Lennox Lewis to fame in the 1990s.
The Heart of Knightsville is narrated by Vincent Pastore, who may be best known for playing Salvatore Bonpensiero in the first two seasons of The Sopranos. His scenes for the documentary were filmed inside the church.
The documentary premiered on Sunday for a sold-out screening at the Greenwich Odeum. It will be screened a second time at sundown on Sunday, July 27 in Itri Park. The screening will be hosted by Mayor Ken Hopkins and former city councilor, Ed Brady and State Rep. Chris G. Paplauskas. There is a suggested $10 donation for adults and the event will be free for children.
“I’m excited for the premiere at the Odeum but I’m equally or a little more excited to show the movie in Knightsville,” DeNucci says. “Hopefully La Madonna will give us a clear night.”
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