Torna la Tavola di San Giuseppe!

After a three-year hiatus, St. Joseph’s Table returns to Mt. Carmel in its traditional format. Due to COVID, it was canceled in 2020 and adapted to a drive-thru spaghetti dinner in 2021 and 2022. Now, we are please to invite everyone to our 45th St. Joseph’s Table just like you remember it!

La Tavola di San Giuseppe started in Sicily during the Middle Ages. A great famine struck the region and the people prayed for relief through St. Joseph’s intercession. It finally rained, ending the famine, and the people prepared a a grand feast in his honor. The feast became an annual tradition around March 19th, St. Joseph’s feast day. Tables were filled with bread and pastries to be shared with family, friends, strangers, and the poor. Since his feast day falls during Lent, the meal was absent of meat.

The Italians inevitably brought this tradition to the United States. Now, St. Joseph’s Table is celebrated across the country in a similar manner to our Sicilian paesani. Here in Denver, Mary Rotola, an ardent parishioner, started our tradition in 1977. Legend says that she promised her own celebration in St. Joseph’s honor if her son would become a priest. He did (you know him as Father Al Rotola, SJ) and Denver’s first St. Joseph’s Table was held in her small North Denver abode.

Father Joseph Carbone, OSM, who was our pastor at the time, approached Mrs. Rotola and convinced her to have the event at Mt. Carmel the following year. She agreed. Thanks to Mary Rotola, Fr. Carbone, Lucille Acierno (then-president of the Altar & Rosary Society), and all who were involved through the generations, St. Joseph's Table continues despite ongoing challenges. We’re extremely excited and grateful to mark the 45th year.