St. Mary Magdalen Parish celebrates 60th

By Marlene Quaroni - Florida Catholic

Photography: MARLENE QUARONI | FC

SUNNY ISLES BEACH | Parishioners of St. Mary Magdalen received a gift on the 60th anniversary of the Sunny Isles Beach church.

“We took advantage of the anniversary to have a statue of our patron saint created,” said Father Bernard Kirlin, St. Mary Magdalen’s pastor, during the anniversary Mass. “This statue is an honor for our church and it’s an honor to have the worldwide renowned artist, Paolo Schiraldi, with us today.”

Schiraldi lives in Bitonto, Italy, near San Giovanni Rotondo, where he has a factory specializing in the creation of sacred furnishings. His son, Ruggiero Schiraldi, runs Vaticano Trading, Inc., a distribution company located in Doral. As a boy, the 68-year-old artist knew the saint, Padre Pio, who lived in San Giovanni Rotondo. The experience of knowing a saint found its way into his artwork.

“His work is unique and amazing,” said Father Kirlin, who chose the design from various drawings. “The skull which Mary Magdalen is holding represents Jesus Christ, who conquered death, and the book is the scriptures which she follows. She was with Jesus through his death and resurrection.”

The new statue is placed on a pedestal to the right of the altar. It took four months to create and is sculpted in marble dust, entirely hand-made and then coated with a process called galvanization in porcelain.

Auxiliary Bishop Peter Baldacchino, the main celebrant of the Mass, said the statue reminds viewers of the power of Jesus Christ to transform people into saints.

“Mary Magdalen didn’t abandon Jesus on the cross,” he said.

St. Mary Magdalen Parish was established in 1955 as a mission of Holy Family in North Miami. Priests celebrated Mass in the nearby Golden Gate Hotel auditorium. In 1957, a church building was dedicated and St. Mary Magdalen became a parish. A parish hall was added in 1973.

The church is the only Christian church in Sunny Isles Beach. The parish also serves Marian Towers, a Catholic Health Services apartment complex for low-income seniors built on parish grounds.

Members of the Sunny Isles Jewish community have leased the parish hall, as has a Christian church that studies the Bible in Russian on Sunday afternoons. In the summer, the parish hall is used by the city of Sunny Isles Beach as a summer camp for children.

The parish is trilingual, as so was the anniversary Mass — in English, Spanish and French. Many French Canadians live in Sunny Isles Beach during the winter.

Renee Lussier, a parishioner since 1999, remembers tutoring Father Thomas Honold, the now retired former pastor, in French.

“We couldn’t find a French speaking priest at the time,” she said. “So I taught him to speak some French. He made a few pronunciation mistakes during the Mass. He gave it a good try.”

During the 1950s and ‘60s, more than 30 motels sprang up along Collins Avenue’s oceanfront. Tourists came from all over to stay at one of the themed, exotically-designed motels along what became known of as “motel row.”

In 1997, Sunny Isles incorporated as a municipality named Sunny Isles Beach. Developers have been replacing the motels with high-rise luxury condominiums, some as high as 60 stories.

Joseph Feldman, 73, was among the parishioners at the 60th anniversary Mass. He has been coming to Sunny Isles and St. Mary Magdalen Church since 1970, first as a vacationer with his family, and now as a retiree.

“We stayed at the Golden Strand Motel where we were able to get a villa for the eight members of my family,” said Feldman, a former parking lot owner in Chicago. “It was all motels back then. There were many horsemen staying at the Golden Strand from nearby Gulfstream Race Track.”