Celebrate the feast of St. Anthony in the City’s North End, featuring tours of the iconic church, Portuguese, American and Spanish food!

The St. Anthony of Padua parish will host tours of its iconic Romanesque style church, and will have food, games, the legendary Portuguese malasadas (fried dough).

Festival Celebration of St. Anthony will take place on Saturday June 11 from 12pm to 6pm and on Sunday June 12 from 12pm to 3pm.

St. Anthony of Padua was founded in 1895 to serve the needs of French Canadian Catholics who lived in the North End of New Bedford. The new parish was under the care of first pastor, Fr. Hormisdas Deslauriers (1861–1916), an energetic leader who would have great influence on the parishes future development. The first mass was celebrated on Oct 6th 1895 at ‘’North Union Hall’’ on Bullard Street. Shortly thereafter a two-story wood-frame church was dedicated on March 8, 1896.

The present Romanesque style church was begun in 1902 when the parish acquired plans from Canadian architect Joseph Venne of Montreal. The cornerstone for the new building was laid in June 1904 and work began on shortly thereafter. On September 20, 1904, several construction workers were seriously injured and one killed when a 50-foot wall collapsed at the construction site.