PAHOKEE | Members of St. Mary Parish in Pahokee gathered Sept. 8, 2025, to honor and celebrate the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the birthday of their patroness, with joy, love and thanksgiving. Father John Mericantante, pastor emeritus, celebrated an evening Mass with Father Raúl Cárdenas, St. Mary’s pastor, and the celebration continued afterward in the parish hall with food, mariachi music and camaraderie.
The previous day, Sept. 7, Pope Leo XIV canonized two special saints, Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis. “Both these saints had a great and deep devotion to the Blessed Mother as a core component of their spirituality,” Father Mericantante told the St. Mary parishioners. “Dying at 24 (in 1925), St. Pier Giorgio Frassati belonged to many Marian organizations and prayed daily the Little Office of Our Lady,” and “pinned to his door was his handwritten copy of St. Bernard’s Hymn to the Virgin.”
His favorite image of Our Lady was a Black Madonna called in his native city of Turin, Our Lady of Oropa. Today, a portrait of the newly canonized saint “now hangs inside the chapel of Our Lady of Oropa. His rosary was said daily whether he was in the chapel or climbing a mountain with his friends.”
St. Carlo died at age 15 of leukemia in 2006 and is considered the church’s first millennial saint. “He too had a great devotion to Our Lady,” he said. “At age 7, Carlo began participating in daily Mass and in daily adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, where he would pray a rosary several times a day demonstrating his profound devotion to the Blessed Mother.
“Today, as we celebrate the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we can remember in a special way the canonizations yesterday of both St. Pier Giorgio Frassati and St. Carlo Acutis, who both should inspire all of us, especially you young people, to love our Blessed Mother and to pray the rosary every day, and perhaps even to bring her flowers from your gardens.”
St. Mary Church, which houses a 16th-century Russian icon, Our Lady of Bethlehem, has become a place of pilgrimage for the faithful of the Diocese of Palm Beach and beyond. They come to visit, pray or give thanks to God in a serene setting surrounded by the beauty of nature. Some pilgrims come seeking a miracle.
Maria Isabel Moreno-Solorio was one of those women who believed she received a miracle after praying a novena to the Blessed Virgin and attending Mass. She told the Florida Catholic in September 2020: “I struggled to conceive for 12 years. I went to Mass and prayed before the Virgin Mary asking for a miracle to have a baby,” she said. “My prayers were answered — here is my miracle baby, Vinicio Emmanuel.”
The family was present this year for the feast day celebration with their “miracle child,” who is now 7 years old.
For more information on St. Mary Parish or to view the icon, call in advance at 561-924-7305 or visit https://stmarysofpahokee.com.
