File:1888- Church of St. Anthony of Padua (New York).jpg

St. Anthony of Padua Church (1888) -- Franciscan Church (New York)

The Franciscan Parish of St. Anthony of Padua was established in 1866 to serve the spiritual needs of the Italian immigrant community of New York. At the invitation of Bishop John McCloskey of New York, Pamfilo of Magliano, the Minister Provincial of the Franciscan friars, assigned Friar Leo Pacilio, a native of Naples, to this task.

The parish was initially located on the premises of a former Methodist church on the corner of Sullivan Street and West Houston. St. Anthony's School also began in 1872 in an adjacent building. In 1882, thanks to the initiative of the parish priest Anacleto De Angelis, the purchase of the adjacent land was undertaken for the construction of a new and larger church. Construction began in 1886 and ended in 1888.

The church is located on Hudson Street, between the Greenwich Village and Soho neighborhoods. Designed in Romanesque Revival style by one of the most famous New York architects of the time, Arthur Crooks, it corresponded well to the desire of the Italian Catholic community to have a building that could rival St. Patrick's Cathedral in Ireland in beauty and elegance. Since then the church has been at the center of the life of the local Italian community and is still officiated today by the Franciscan Fathers.