Celebrating Miracles: Sept 7th Lourdes Retreat at St Mary Church in Stamford Expected to Draw Hundreds

Greenwich native David D’Andrea and Father Gustavo Falla, Pastor at St. Mary of Stamford Parish, have been busy planning the upcoming Lourdes Retreat on Sept 7, sure to draw hundreds of people who believe in miracles.

The event starts at 1:00pm and will last about one hour.

The retreat will be celebrated by Bishop Frank J. Caggiano and hosted by Father Gustavo Falla, Pastor. Admission is free although donations are encouraged.

St. Mary of Stamford Parish, part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport, dates back to 1917.

Built in 1928, the beautiful cathedral-style church on Elm Street seats is situated on the crest of a hill, where the six acre property is a reminder of Stamford’s small town origins. At the time the church was built, the railroad existed but the turnpike did not.

The open land was owned by Isaac Wardwell, whose Italianate villa was built in 1860 at that precise location of the church today.

In fact, the house was painstakingly relocated a short distance to make room for construction of the stone church.

“They moved it while the priests were still living inside the house,” Father Falla said. “It was moved inch by inch, gradually, until they cleared the land for building the church.”

Beautifully restored, today the original Wardwell mansion serves as the church rectory.

St. Mary Church was founded by immigrants, mostly from Ireland but also from Italy and eastern Europe. Father Falla said that gradually, in the 1960s and 1970s, Spanish speaking people arrived, but it wasn’t until 2014, when he came to Stamford that St. Mary’s made it a “full blown Spanish ministry.”

Originally from Colombia, Father Falla speaks not only English and Spanish, but French as well.

D’Andrea explained that over a decade ago, when he was preparing to undergo chemotherapy for cancer, his cousin Joe Giandurco from New York hosted a mass for him at St. Roch’s Church in Greenwich’s Chickahominy neighborhood.

“Father Art was the pastor at the time,” D’Andrea recalled. “Little did we know my cousin had Lourdes water from France with him. All of a sudden he brought out a bottle of the healing water – and from there the healing started. Afterward, other people approached him.”

That inspired D’Andrea to approach Bishop Caggiano with the idea of a Lourdes pilgrimage at St. Mary’s in Stamford, which is significantly larger than St. Roch’s, as it accommodates almost three times as many people.

The upcoming Lourdes retreat, which Mr. D’Andrea hopes will repeat on a biennial basis, has in the past filled the large church.

This year, the event will focus on healing, and Father Falla hopes survivors of abuse will make their way to Elm Street.

“We’re begging for God’s healing for people who are survivors – those have survived any form of abuse – within and outside the church. We live in times where people have been victimized terribly by others,” he said. “It’s a tragedy that so many go without healing or a chance to even speak.”

Mr. D’Andrea knows something about being a survivor.

Having contracted Polio at the tender age of eight, he was treated at Greenwich Hospital and recovered. But just five years later, in 1964, he was a victim of child sexual abuse at the hands of the then pastor at St. Roch Church in Chickahominy.

He remained quiet about that ordeal for many years, but today participates in the Safe Environment Program for the Healing of Sex Abuse victims, run by the Bridgeport Diocese.

Later came the cancer diagnosis.

But, D’Andrea, staunch in his faith, believes in miracles. In fact, he said he has had at least two in his life.

Today, he is cancer free and his faith has grown stronger over time.

“I wanted to hold the event to help people who are really ill. People who are invalids and need care all the time, and people dying of cancer,” he said. “There will be a lot of people with silent illnesses on Sept 7, and some may be on the verge of death.”

Father Falla explained that Lourdes water flows from a spring in the Grotto of Massabielle in the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in France, and according to church dogma, the apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared in Lourdes in 1844.

“There is a beautiful image in which Mary appears to a young peasant girl named Bernadette – innocent and full of faith. And then miracles begin to happen. There is a fountain on the site in France that people visit, and the water from that fountain heals the infirm.”

“We pray for healing, and that the Blessed Mother – Our Lady of Lourdes – will help all the survivors so they will be strengthened and help us communicate the message of healing,” Father Falla added.

At the Sept 7 event, Bishop Caggiano, who has led the Diocese of Bridgeport since 2013, will say the Rosary in Italian, and the community will say the Rosary in five different languages: English, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French and Italian.

Everyone will be blessed with water from the grotto in Lourdes, France.

“It will be beautiful in the candlelight,” D’Andrea said. “All are welcome. The event is free to attend.”

“The Bishop is going to sprinkle the water and bless everyone,” Father Falla said. “The water is all the way from Lourdes.”

The Lourdes Retreat will include a procession around the church with the Our Lady of Lourdes statue, the candlelight Rosary said multiple languages, a Eucharistic Blessing, a homily by Bishop Caggiano, distribution of Holy Water from Lourdes, and a reception in the church hall.

Mr. D’Andrea said he was grateful to the Bishop for his support and to both Pastor Falla and administrative assistant Stefania Canneto.

He said he expects to fill the church and urges people to RSVP by email to [email protected].