For many years Italy has been sending her sons and daughters to this country, which grants them many privileges denied them in their own sunny land. Many of the thousands who emigrate find their way into the coal belt of Pennsylvania, where they turn their attention to mining and other vocations where skilled labor is not an essential requisite. A large colony of these people have settled in and around Carbondale, where for many years they have been deprived of that spiritual care and instruction which the mother church bestowed on them in their own country. Occasionally a priest would visit them and in a temporary way look after their spiritual necessities. During those visitations a committee was formed to look forward to the erection of an edifice in which to worship. Prior to 1900 an excavation was made for a foundation under the direction of Reverend Father Dominick Landro, then parish priest in Scranton, but nothing was begun until the Rev A S Cerruti was sent to them in the year 1900. Since that time he has erected a beautiful house of worship at a cost of eight thousand dollars that now, with all the furniture and many inside and outside improvements, can be estimated at twenty-five thousand dollars. His parish extends over Carbondale, Forest City, Mayfield, Jermyn, and Edgerton. In this extensive parish there are two hundred and fifty families, embracing fifteen hundred souls. This gives the reader some idea of the responsibility which rests on Father Cerruti.
Father Cerruti is a native of Campagna, Italy, born in the year 1853, this town being the residence of the archbishop of that diocese. His education was acquired in the common schools and a seminary of prominence in his native town. In 1875 he was ordained to the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church. He spent the first fifteen years of his pastorate in his own country, during which time he served his church and people most acceptably, and at the expiration of this period of time emigrated to the United States, landing in Philadelphia, where he spent three years in mastering the English language and preparing himself for a life of usefulness in his new home and country. His first appointment was at Bangor, Pennsylvania, but after a residence of one year there he was sent to Hammonton, New Jersey, where he remained until 1900, when he came to Scranton, Pennsylvania, and after four months to Carbondale, where he has endeared himself to his people and built for them the beautiful church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. His work has required patience and persistence, and through the exercise of these qualities he has attained commendable success. As a preacher, his sermons show painstaking thought and his illustrations are always to the point.