St. Joseph and New Orleans Spiritualism

The Spiritualist veneration of Saint Joseph in the United States largely goes back to New Orleans in the 1900s, where the mass immigration of Sicilians brought their passionate love and veneration for their patron, Saint Joseph. 

Saint Joseph has been especially loved by Sicilians since the middle ages, where legend says during a terrible drought his intercession was sought to bring rain, thus saving the island from famine. The Sicilians, grateful to their beloved saint, promised that they would hold a feast every year in his honor. 

In the early 20th century there was a mass immigration of Sicilians to the United States, and many entered the port of New Orleans, bringing their spiritual traditions to the city. His popularity as a Saint in New Orleans soon spread among Catholics, both Italian-American and African-American, and eventually to Spiritualists.

In the early decades of the 1900s, Sicilians were not considered to be white by the vast majority of Americans, and were even looked down upon by other Italians as being non-Italian. Many Sicilians and Southern Italians found a welcome home among the African-American Spiritualist Churches of New Orleans. Unlike the American Catholic church where they were segregated and ostracized, the Spiritualist Churches were not only more similar to their spiritual version of Catholicism: filled with wonder-working Saints, ecstatic visions, and communication with spirits of the dead, but the Sicilians also found that were welcomed warmly and with friendship by the African American Spiritualists.

Mother Leafy Anderson of the Eternal Life Christian Spiritualist Church of New Orleans lead a revival of Spiritualism in New Orleans and through several other areas. Through her charismatic preaching, spiritual gifts, music filled services, Mother Anderson took Spiritualists out of  hiding, and into the public eye.

Among her congregation she had several Italian members and was so beloved and respected by the Italian community of New Orleans that she was able to secure a loan from the Italian Homestead Association in order to pay for Eternal Life Spiritualist Church. It's known that she counted at least two Italian-American women among her disciples, one of which was Mother Lena Scovotto. 

Mother Lena was trained and ordained by Mother Anderson, and received her charter from Mother Anderson to open her own church, Sacred Heart Spiritual Church, also recorded as Sacred Heart Spiritualist Mission. Mother Scovotto was not only Mother Anderson's student, but was also a dear friend. 

According to an interview with Mother Scovotto's younger brother, he stated that Leafy Anderson and Lena Scovotto "were close, like two peas in a pod," He continued saying, "She taught my sister Lena, directed her, helped her to get started in the profession of being Spiritual. When Mother Anderson got sick, my sister Lena took care of her." 

Mother Catherine Seals of the Temple of Innocent Blood also counted numerous Sicilians and Italians among her followers, who considered her a living Saint. A story has been recorded of Mother Catherine miraculously healing a young Italian girl: 

“I was also told about a little Italian girl who was unable to walk and Mother Catherine cured her. Her parents brought her to the shrine and Mother Catherine kept telling the child to walk and she left her place and walked to Mother Catherine.” (The Spiritual Churches of New Orleans by Claude F. Jacobs, Andrew J. Kaslow) 

One of the most interesting documented accounts of this intercultural devotion to Saint Joseph among the New Orleans Spiritualist Churches was Mother Maude Shannon's story recorded in the work, Gumbo Ya-Ya. Mother Shannon of Daniel Helping Hand Spiritual Church received a vision from the spirit world saying that she needed to hold a feast to St. Joseph to feed the poor; her own description of the event was recorded in an interview: 

‘It been fourteen years now I been having my Saint Joseph Altar. That day I started out with thirty dollars to pay my rent and I met Saint Joseph and he told me to take the money and make a Saint Joseph Altar. I was scared I never would get my rent together again. I’m a poor widow woman and sometimes I gets up and there ain’t a cent in the house. Still, I got faith, so I built me the altar.’ 

‘I come out of my door that mornin’,’ says Reverend Maude, ‘and I heared a voice talkin’ to me just as plain as if there’d been someone walkin’ by my side. The voice says I must get together the sisters of the church, and we must gather candles and cakes and make an altar for Saint Joseph’s Day. So I threw out my hands to show the voice I done heared its words, and I called the sisters together and we went out with baskets to gather the food for our flock.’ 

Mother Shannon modeled her feast to St. Joseph extremely similar to how it was celebrated by Sicilians and Italians in New Orleans, A description of the feast describes the following: 

"Freshly-starched lace curtains hung at the windows. The small anteroom, usually used for a dressing room, held the Saint Joseph’s Altar. Here walls and ceiling were entirely covered with white sheets, and the altar, taking up half the room, was literally concealed under platters and plates and bowls of food, most of it identical with that found on the altars in Italian homes of New Orleans" 

"There were the immense loaves of Italian bread — most of them shaped like rings — the Italian salads and seed cakes. There were shrimp and stuffed crabs and a huge lobster, and a hundred other kinds of foods." 

"In the front center was a cake baked in the form of an open book, covered with white icing and embellished with the following words in pink icing: ‘Come thou with us, and we will do thee good; for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel.’ There were the usual tall candles, decorated with pictures of angels and rosebuds." 

"Opposite the altar, on a mantel, were votive lights and smaller candles, and a box to receive offerings. A white man entered, stood before these, said a prayer, and dropped a coin into the box. On the altar, a white bowl also received money. Another contained Saint Joseph’s beans, and those dropping coins took a bean or two." 

An interesting point of gossip was also recorded that much of the food and work for the altars were rumored to have been contributed by gamblers from her section of the city, who donated money in exchange for "lucky beans" to help them in gambling. The "lucky beans" or "St. Joseph's beans" (or "mojo bean") in question are actually Fava Beans, which are a staple dish prepared on St. Joseph's day brought to New Orleans by Sicilian immigrants.

The practice of honoring St. Joseph on March 19th with elaborate altars continues to today, as St. Joseph continues to hear the prayers of those in need, whoever they may be.