By Leslie Rylke

A few months ago, we featured Kathleen Nader, Facility Manager at the Chester County Economic Development Council (CCEDC) – you can read the original post here.  One of the most unique and interesting parts of her story was the saga of the statue of St. Pantaleon.

To review, the statue has been in the family of Kathleen’s husband, Eddie, since 1946 when a delegation from Montauro, Italy brought it to the US.

According to Eddie, “The plan was for the friends to take the statue to Boston for a festival and return with the statue to Italy.

Needless to say, the Italians returned from Boston with the statue and a plea for Concetta to keep St. Pantaleon until they were able to get him back to Italy, and promised they would.

They were never heard from again!”

For decades, the statue was cared for by various members of Eddie’s family before he and Kathleen took it into their home in 2012.  In 2015, another delegation from Montauro came to the US in search of the statue but were unsuccessful.

A year later, the Naders and some other relatives traveled to Italy to visit the little village in which Concetta was born and raised when they made an unexpected breakthrough!

“It’s not every day that the tranquil village of Montauro gets visitors from the US,” explained Eddie.  “Soon villagers were shouting ‘Americans are here from Philadelphia, Concetta’s family is here!’

Before we knew it, Mayor Pantaleone Procopio came out to welcome us.  Can you believe that? The mayor’s name is Pantaleone! Maybe that is how we got on the subject of the statute.”

The village was overjoyed to finally know the location of the statue and are anxious to have it returned.  The Naders returned from the trip and began joking that they would need a GoFundMe page to help get the statue shipped back to Montauro since the village does not have the financial resources to do so.

A few months later, after investigating packing and shipping costs, that is exactly what they did!  You can read more about the saga of the statue of St. Panteleon and the efforts to get it return on its GoFundMe page.