Alessandro (Alexander) Mauriello

b. 1 Nov 1909, Prata di Principato Ultra, Avellino, Italy, the son of Saverio Mauriello and his wife Filomena Russo. His brother Anthony also moved to the USA, living in Monsey, NY, while his other brother, Aniello Renna, remained in Italy. He was educated to year 7 standard, and received no formal ministry training thereafter.

1919 - naturalized in New York. His address was given as 100 Roosevelt St.

12 February, 1929, m. Lena nee Cusumano, in Jackson, MO. Because he was still under 21, his guardian Sam Pisciotta had to agree to the marriage. They had a son, David. They spent some time Jackson, Alexander working as a labourer on the railways. In 1931, he and his father-in-law, Tony Cusumano (of 1104 East Fourth St) were walking down the street in Kansas City when they were caught up in an exchange of gunfire - Tony was hit in the heart and died.

About this time, Mauriello became closely involved in the Kansas City work of A. S. Copley, a former Christian & Missionary Alliance pastor who had received the pentecostal blessing at Azusa Street. He had established Grace and Glory Fellowship (GCF) in Kansas City, and long published the Grace and Glory magazine (initially with assistance by a young J. Roswell Flower). It was in the GCF that Mauriello was ordained in 1934 by Copley and his associate Mary M. Bodie. (FPHC Deceased Ministers Files)

By 1935, Mauriello was already building a reputation as a travelling, interdenominational evangelist and church planter. In that year, he was running two weeks of prayer and preaching in the private home of John Belden, in Henryetta, Oklahoma. By 1938, he had founded an Italian Pentecostal Church in Dallas, TX, at 2338 Harrison Ave.

By 1945 he had founded and was pastoring the Italian Pentecostal church at 1543 McKean St., Philadelphia, and preaching in Italian over WHAT Radio. In 1948 he was founding Treasurer of the Italian Branch, AGUSA, and applied for recognition of his previous ordination with the AGUSA. He was one of a number of Italian Branch pastors whose previous (and sometimes 'irregular') ordinations had - with the formation of the Branch - to be absorbed into AGUSA systems. Mauriello was already thinking about his next step, however. Even before he resigned from the Italian Pentecostal Church in 1948, he applied first for CCNA accreditation to go as a missionary to Italy, and when rejected, for renewal as an 'evangelist' with the AGUSA. From September 1949, he transferred to Los Angeles, CA (living at 709 W. Manchester Ave) where he planted a church.

In 1958, he was pastoring in Shawnee, Kansas.

In 1966, he and the family moved to Kansas City, MO, to carry out evangelism. They settled at 615 Brooklyn Ave. Only six months later, he died suddenly (the death certificate says of a heart attack, while his obituary listed the cause as cancer) in the Research Hospital on 18 October 1966, Kansas City, MO. He was buried at Green Lawn Cemetery, Kansas City, MO.

Sources:

'History of Alexander Mauriello', 21/4/3, Holdings, Flower Pentecostal Heritage Centre

Ancestry.com

Newspapers.com.

Flower Pentecostal Heritage Centre, Springfield, MO. Deceased Ministers Files [particular thanks go to Archivist, Darrin Rodgers, and Reference Archivist Glenn W. Gohr, for facilitating access to these files].