Italian-American Herald - April 2024

THE CHEF’S PERSPECTIVE Discover the beauty of working with what’s in front of you
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‘Cabrini’ film strikes chord with producer By Ken Mammarella
The seed for “Cabrini” formed in 1955, when J. Eustace Wolfington saw a statue of Mother Cabrini at St. Donato Parish
in Philadelphia and joined a nine-week novena on the first American saint.
“I’m going to make her my patron saint,” he told La Voce di New York. “Because I realized what a great leader and what a great entrepreneur she was.”
Wolfington is a businessman and entrepreneur headquartered in King of Prussia, Pa.
The seed wasn’t planted until the 2010s, when Sister Mary Louise Sullivan, former president of Cabrini University
and a biographer of the saint, asked him
to make a movie about her. Not a stretch: Wolfington and his family had produced “Bella,” a 2006 “love story that goes beyond romance.” She bugged him for years, and he relented when he learned of plans for a low-budget “fairy-tale” film, and he wanted to create an epic, like “Gandhi.” Because
See WOLFINGTON - page 3
Sardinia’s repression and rebirth
Observance each April 28 commemorates rebellion of 1794
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A depiction of the Sardinian Vespers shows the entrance into Sassari in 1795 of Giovanni Maria Angioy, one of the main leaders of the rebellion.
By Jeanne Outlaw-Cannavo
This month Sardinians will celebrate “Sa die de sa Sardinnya,” (the day of Sardinia) on April 28 to honor the day in which their ancestors rebelled against Piedmontese rule. The festival was established in 1993 to remember the revolt of 1794, and is a religious festival also known as the Sardian Vespers.
Sardinia is one of the 20 regions of Italy and is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily. It is one of
five Italian regions with some degree of regional autonomy which was granted to the island in 1948. Sardinians are a proud and resilient people whose lives and culture have been shaped by numerous invasions and historical events.
For centuries, the island was invaded and ruled by various factions. Structures found on the island called Nuraghe are attributed to a Bronze Age civilization which built them between 1500 and 400 B.C.
The inhabitants were a highly organized
tribal state who created their wealth from the mining of metals. The majority of
the tribe were shepherds, farmers and craftsmen. Landowners and soldiers were considered the aristocracy and priests had great significance as they were in charge of medicine and religious rituals, and they ruled over the villages.
In 1297 the island, along with Corsica, became the Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica and was ruled by King James II
See SARDINIA - page 6
Ardmore author Linda Romanowski wins publisher’s prize for nonfiction
By Al Kemp
ARDMORE, Pa. – Ardmore author Linda Romanowski has received the 2023 Sunny Award for Nonfiction from her publisher, Sunbury Press, for her 2023 book “Final Touchstones.”
leaving Sicily for America in the early 1900s. Ratherthanpresentherfamilyhistory as
a linear historical narrative, Romanowski arranged it into evocative vignettes that offer sensory glimpses into that rich saga, like moments in time caught in a camera flash.
The memoir chronicles four brothers
See ROMANOWSKI - page 12
Vol. 11 / No. 4