By Marlene Quaroni - Florida Catholic
Marian Center student Susan Sandler and Sister Germana Sala bring offertory gifts to Father Christopher Marino during the 60th anniversary Mass, Oct. 20. 2023.
Barbara Psinakis, Adult Day Training director at the Marian Center, leads the bell choir during the center's 60th anniversary Mass, Oct. 20, 2023.
Father Christopher Marino holds up a relic of St. Joseph Cottolengo, founder of the religious community who opened and still staff the Marian Center, after the 60th anniversary Mass, Oct. 20, 2023.
Posing after the Marian Center's 50th anniversary Mass, from left: Sister Mary Ellen Doyle (seated), Sister Filomena Mastrangelo, Sister Carla DeFeo, Sister Fausta Rondena, Father Christopher Marino, Sister Lidia Valli and Sister Mary Soshiyath (kneeling), Michele Mistò, Italian Consul General in Miami, Sister Enrica Donghi and Sister Germana Sala.
Photography: MARLENE QUARONI | FC
MIAMI GARDENS | Continuing the celebration of its 60th anniversary, the students, families, benefactors and staff of the Marian Center celebrated a Mass Oct. 20, 2023, presided by Father Christopher Marino.
Father Marino is rector of St. Mary Cathedral, and his late brother, Joey, was a student at the Marian Center. The center’s renowned bell choir took part in the Mass, which was followed by a jubilee party.
At the conclusion of the Mass, Father Marino displayed a relic of St. Joseph Benedict Cottolengo, founder of the religious community whose members have staffed the Marian Center since its inception.
October 2023 marks the 60th anniversary of the arrival in Miami of 11 of the community’s women religious. They came from Turin, Italy, at the request of Miami’s first archbishop, Coleman Carroll, to staff a school for developmentally disabled children and adults.
The congregation of St. Joseph Benedict Cottolengo was the most renowned within Italy for its work with people with developmental disabilities. The Marian Center was the community's first endeavor outside of Europe.
The school began classes in September 1964, after the 11 original sisters learned English and the grounds for the Marian Center, a 50-acre site in Opa-Locka (now Miami Gardens), were cleared for construction.
A convent was the first structure built in 1964. One wing of the convent was used as a school and home for the first children to arrive. A school building opened in 1965, then came the pool house and swimming pool in 1966. A multipurpose building was dedicated in 1968; a permanent residential cottage for women in 1971; and the building that now houses the adult training center in 1979.
Today, the Marian Center is a fully accredited school for students ages 6 through 21, with no more than 12 students per classroom, and unique individualized plans that touch on the essentials of language development, communication, reading and writing, math, science, religion and more.
The Marian Center also offers an adult training and work program.
For more information, go to https://www.mariancenterschool.org/contact-us or call 305-625-8354.
Photographer: MARLENE QUARONI | FC
Posing after the Marian Center's 50th anniversary Mass, from left: Sister Mary Ellen Doyle (seated), Sister Filomena Mastrangelo, Sister Carla DeFeo, Sister Fausta Rondena, Father Christopher Marino, Sister Lidia Valli and Sister Mary Soshiyath (kneeling), Michele Mistò, Italian Consul General in Miami, Sister Enrica Donghi and Sister Germana Sala.
