Day 178

This replica of the statue that stands in the center of the Italian town of Mola di Bari, honoring its patron saint, is the focal point of the garden outside the Van Westerhout Cittadini Molesi Social Club, a gathering place for men from Mola. (Here's a substantial, though sloppily reported — Mola has 26,000 residents, not 2,500, for example — look inside the club.) Twice a year, a similar Madonna kept at Sacred Hearts-St. Stephen’s is paraded around the streets of Carroll Gardens for hours, accompanied by musicians and throngs of marchers.