Francesco Galvano

Francesco Galvano was born on. 28 September 1865 to Antonino Galvano and Antonina nee Baio, in the Sicilian town of Raffadali, prov. Agrigento.  A rural labourer, he married Giovanna 'Vanidda' Frenda, with whom he had four children. Two of these died young, leaving Domenico and Gerlanda, who they bought up in their home at Via S. Antonino, 8. In 1910, Francesco emigrated for economic reasons to Argentina, where he stayed for two years. In 1913, he left again to find work in the USA, settling in Niagara Falls, NY. His son Domenico, now 18, followed him there in 1921, arriving at Ellis Island on 12 May 1921 on the Regina d'Italia in the company of the 16 year old Francesco Russo Morto. Domenico (aka Domenick) obtained work at Kimberley Clark, and Francesco (Frank) at Bethlehem Steel. Two of his nephews, Domenico and Mariano, also migrated to Niagara Falls. In 1916, Massimiliano Tosetto (from the Chicago Assemblea) pioneered the church in which first Galvano, and then his son and two nephews, were converted. (It would also be in this church that Anthony and Frances Foti, the former a missionary to Australia, the latter a missionary to South America, grew up.) As Federico describes it: 

[Galvano] immediately had a personal encounter with Jesus and accepted him as his personal Saviour in the church cared for by Pastor Massimiliano Tosetto, of whom he became a collaborator. He made great use of the latter's teachings and, although he had been semi-illiterate, he learned to know by heart a large part of the biblical verses and their placement in the various books and chapters... He began to testify by letter to his wife Giovanna and his teenage daughter Gerlanda, to whom he also sent a beautiful, richly illustrated, leather-bound Italian language Martini Bible... [When] his daughter Gerlandina... took [this Bible] to the archpriest of the village to submit it to his attention... he scolded her saying: 'You have the devil in your house!', then he tore off the beautiful leather cover for himself and tried to burn the rest. The girl had to use all her strength to take back the Bible and run away. (Federico 2006)

While he was assisting family and paesani to follow him to the USA, 'God ordered him to return to his country to evangelize it, taking with him a large trunk (...) full of copies of the Bible and song books [the Inni e Salmi Spirituali authored by Palma and Tosetto] to distribute, as well as pictures with biblical verses to hang in the homes of relatives and friends'. (Federico 2006) In December 1925, Galvano returned to Raffadali to share his faith. It was still a primarily poor agricultural town, from which many migrants had left for the USA. Galvano still had close associates in the town, particularly his childhood friend Giovanni Russo Morto. When he arrived, these friends and family gathered around, and he led them in a prayer of thanksgiving for his safe passage. Some there were impressed, and said 'We want to hear the prayer you said again.' This mastery of the performative, the freedom of spirituality without a priest being present, provided the basis on which he could then ask people who wanted to hear more to gather with them. 'Whenever you want, either you come here to me, or I will come to your house.' 

He never used to attack the pagan habits of the people, such as that of surrounding themselves with pictures of saints and Madonnas (...). He simply spoke of the redemptive work of Jesus and of His power that transforms the hearts that sincerely repent before Him and waited for souls to free themselves voluntarily and naturally from all those wrong habits that weigh down or impede spiritual life, because they are not according to the will of God. He received many curious people or sympathizers of the faith at home and these contacts with people kept him busy for several hours a day. (Federico 2006)

It helped that the savings he had made as a simple labourer in the USA rendered him a comparatively wealthy man in Raffadali.  'Not infrequently he made loans to the needy and to young couples who intended to marry, without ever expecting any reward from them and, even, without demanding the balance of the loan itself.'  (Federico 2006) lliterate (according to his Ellis Island records, though other records indicate he was semi-literate), when he came to share the Bible, he operated out memorized texts, pointing the Russo Morto family to texts which either they or his daughter Gerlanda would read, and which he would explain. ‘In these meetings, Brother Galvano spoke passionately about the work that God had done in his life; in particular, he spoke about the baptism of the Holy Spirit.’ (Cristiani Oggi, 2007)  By the end of the first gathering, ‘they were all on their knees praising God and in tears’. This was a story repeated in many contexts - many were struck with the message of the directly accessible fatherhood of God, no longer mediated by the Church.  Opening meetings in the Russo Morto home, Galvano quickly found himself under the eye of the authorities, the local Catholic priest launching attacks. Raffadali's clergy were worried about the spread of this new current of evangelism, and they circulated "murmurs" in the village according to which it was a secret sect including local communists who received subsidies from America. The fact that some members were part of the socialist-led town council in Raffadali provided just enough smoke to indicate that there was fire (Ferrara 2007: 184). Called into the Questura, Galvano was ordered by the Carabinieri to desist from proselytising and to return to Catholicism. He responded (according to Vincenzo Federico) that he needed to obey God before man: he was beaten, locked up for several days, and treated like a criminal. His wife was inveighed upon to convince her husband to abandon his new faith, but she replied that he was a good man, only concerned to work for the salvation of lost souls. After his release, he was repeatedly harrassed and re-arrested for briefer periods, often together with his wife, or with Giovanni Sola, who assisted on a visiting basis between 1926 and 1929. Galvano was advised not to involve his wife as she too was subject to being roughed up in prison. While he was in gaol, his wife bought to him a warmer, but it never reached him. His house was repeatedly broken into, and household goods taken, but the carabinieri did nothing. Children were incited to throw stones at his windows while meetings were in progress. The carabinieri also sought to ensure that he did not receive support from the United States for his evangelistic work. He survived on his previous savings, and what his son could send him from the USA.

A report by the prefect of Agrigento to the Minister of the Interior on 3 October 1927 refers to Galvano’s meetings in Raffadali.  In two years he had gathered 35 proselytes who met every evening at 10pm in his home singing and listening to a sermon on the Gospel. The Pentecostals were law-abiding, and their church "was not interested in politics at all and obeyed the laws and the National Government". When Galvano visited Palermo, he fell ill (of 'paralysis'), and had to be attended by the pugliese ‘americano’ Donato Lippolis on his return to Raffadali. There, he was met by Giovanni Scuderi, a colporteur from Palermo. They were, the police record suggests, of regular moral and political conduct, contrary to rumours that they were conducting a clandestine, subversive sect.

The Concordat in 1929 made it increasingly difficult to hold public meetings. Meetings had to be held in secret in remote places among the fields and mountains. Often, during services, there were raids by the Police who interrupted them and subjected the believers to interrogation. Galvano was again struck down with paralysis in 1930, and died shortly thereafter. Federico recalls:

My future father-in-law, since 1926, had suffered a heart attack, followed by a period of poor health and, on February 6, 1930, his condition worsened and he left us to go with the Lord. He had given a true example of faith and zeal in the work of the Lord. When he was close to passing away, all the believers were around his bed in perfect silence; then he addressed this last encouraging exhortation to them: "Brothers, praise the Lord out loud; do not disturb me at all: I am already with the Lord". The church of Raffadali and the neighboring ones wanted to honor him with an impressive funeral, which gave us once again the opportunity to evangelize the whole country.

Giovanni Russo Morto, the logical successor, was called up to military service. From 1929-1931, Vincenzo Federico took over the church, which was then meeting in a room set up by Galvano for the purpose on the ground floor of Via S. Antonino, 8. Federico and a group of elders then purchased a dedicated property on Via Cordova. Russo Morto returned to the leadership, though the fact that Federico married Galvano’s daughter meant that he was often in the town. Continued harassment saw repeated interventions by police, and the premises on Via Cordova were seized. Growth continued, however, to the point where Raffadali became one of the largest of the pre-1947 assemblies, and its location one of the few which were large enough to host the founding conventions (in 1944 and 1945) of what became the Assemblee di Dio in Italia (ADI). After the War, the occupation authorities investigated the impoundment of the Church premises, and finding that this was an evangelical church, returned it to the congregation’s control.

Francesco's son, Domenico Francesco (Dominic Frank) worked for Kimberley Clark in Niagara Falls, married Vincenza nee Paduano (1906-1998), also born in Raffadali, and who moved to Niagara Falls in 1937. He was survived by a son, Frank Timothy Galvano who died in 1966 and was buried at Lewiston, Niagara, and a daughter, Lydia Everett. 

Sources:

• Ancestry.com (Passenger List, Regina d'Italia, 12 May 1921).

• Cristiani Oggi, 15 Sept 2007, p. 4.

• Federico, Vincenzo with F. Toppi (ed.), Vincenzo Federico: propugnatore della collaborazione tra le chiese evangeliche pentecostali (Roma: ADI media, 2006)

• Ferrara, Roberto, Movimenti evangelici in Sicilia dal Risorgimento al fascismo (Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino Editore, 2007)