CHURCH OF ST. JOSEPH
At the end of the 1800s, faith was an integral part of daily life and a woman named Filomena Giampietro wished to donate a statue of St. Joseph to the mother church of Grumo. The sculptor Giuseppe Cutrone, her fellow citizen from Palo del Colle, was tasked with the creation of this statue. The resulting figure was solemn and reassuring and was placed in a bright recess in the central nave. However, at the beginning of the 1900s the church required major restoration work and all its statues were therefore relocated to other holy buildings in the town. The statue of St. Joseph found refuge in a simple chapel next to that of the Madonna della Cintura (Madonna of the Belt), on land belonging to the Lucatuorto family. It was a temporary situation but the intention of building a church entirely dedicated to the saint began to take form. This intention remained for decades until 1956, when Biagio Masellis, a man of great faith who had recently lost his wife, decided to fulfil the dream.
He acquired the land from the Lucatuorto family, entrusted the project to his son-in-law and work began. It was no simple task, requiring resources, materials and great sacrifice. However, the community responded with generosity, donating money which was added to by donations from the town’s emigrants in America. The old chapel was demolished and the new church took its place. It was larger and more substantial, built in pale stone with a linear and elegant façade. A small, three-arched bell tower completed it, ready to house the bells in their call of hope and prayer. Inside the church, the statue of St. Joseph took pride of place in front of the marble altar, finally finding its home. The images of the Madonna Addolorata (Our Lady of Sorrows) and the Madonna della Cintura were placed in recesses in the side walls, a reminder of the origins of the church. This church, which was built with so much love and sacrifice, remains a monument to faith, to memory and to the community’s strength in transforming a dream into reality