Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church

In North Denver's "Little Italy," Mariano Lepore joined Mother Cabrini in building a parish for their countrymen. Father Lepore became a champion of the poor Italian immigrants who wanted a parish to call their own. With the help of the Mount Carmel Society, Father Lepore purchased seven lots and on Palm Sunday, March 18, 1894, Bishop Matz dedicated the original Our Lady of Mount Carmel, a small-frame church, which was ultimately destroyed by arson in 1898. This prompted the Mount Carmel Society to plan a larger, grander church. Father Lepore, who helped lay the cornerstone in 1899, was not there to see the dedication of the Romanesque church you see before you. On November 18, 1903, the thirty-five year old priest was fatally shot under unsolved circumstances.

The dedication featured hundreds of singing, flag-waving, flower-carrying Italians led by Bishop Matched Mother Cabrini's advice, Bishop Matz invited the Servites, an Italian-American order based in Chicago, to tend the new parish. The Servites sent Father Thomas Moreschini who, with the help of Mother Cabrini, set out to unite the fractious Italian community. Aided by Frank Damascio, a prominent Denver contractor, Father Moreschini set out to make Mount Carmel an elegant house of the Lord. Marble statues from Italy were brought in, Italian frescoes were painted on the ceiling and walls, and the exterior was transformed into one of Denver's finest examples of Roman architecture with its twin copper domes and a 1,000 pound bell the parish proudly baptized "Maria del Carmelina."

Father Julius Piccoli succeeded Father Moreschini and put the parish in financial order while helping make Mount Carmel the hub of north Denver's "Little Italy." Eventually,the Servites transformed the struggling parish they adopted in 1904 into one of the staunchest bulwarks of the archdiocese.

Today, Mount Carmel still stands as a testament to the perseverance of the immigrants who built it, shining as a beacon of hope and faith while preserving the traditions 120 years later.