Plasmati, Antonio Vincenzo

Antonio Vincenzo Plasmati was born to a farming family in the vicinity of Matera on 3 January 1879, and emigrated to the USA in September 1906. He was seeking to raise money to eventually bring his entire family--including his wife, Addolorata Schiuma, over to the USA. One night, he and some friends were walking for relaxation after a hard day's labour (sources vary as to whether this was in Chicago, California or Brooklyn), when they overheard the proceedings of an evangelical church. Entering the building, he was profoundly struck by the preaching, and lingered until he was both converted and, the next year, baptised in the Spirit. In April 1908, he returned to Matera to meet his family, with the intention of bringing them to the USA with him. He visited the existing Baptist work, which had been established there by Luigi Loperfido ('il Monaco Bianco'), and began talking about his experience. After a while, divisions arose with the Baptists over doctrine, and about 15 'simpatizzanti' were expelled with him. Matera is an area known for its many caves, and several of these caves became meeting places for Christians. Among these were the former Baptists, Nicola Andrisani, Luigi D'Oppido, Michele Vitulli, all of whom went on to make an active contribution in the region,

In 1914, Plasmati invited Giuseppina Zollo to preach around Ginosa di Matera, which led to the foundation of a formal church in the town. Many people received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and the Pentecostal movement continued to spread, in spite of many difficulties. The couple returned to the USA, where they lived at 1825 West 6th Street in Brooklyn. There were other mataresi in the Bronx, indeed another family called Plasmati (the head of which were Biagio and Rita nee Calculli). The year after her husband's death on 9 October 1946, Addolorata became a naturalized US citizen.

Plasmati's importance for the pentecostal story is as an example of the grass roots networks out of which indigenized pentecostalism (in Italy, and elsewhere in the world) emerged in the early 20th century. He was one of hundreds of 'americani' who (like Francesco Galvano, Susanna Colantonio, or Zollo herself) returned to local towns in Italy, without any formal organizational support or even educational background, to build communities over often pre-existing regional tendencies towards revivalism, anti-clericalism, separatism and the like. In his case, the underlying network facilitators included a Waldensian presence (in Mortola and Ginosa), persistent agricultural disquiet due to poor living standards, and the Baptist work developed by 'il monaco bianco', Loperfido. [Spini, Italia Liberale e Protestanti, pp. 239-240] There have been several attempts to connect Plasmati to Chicago and to Azusa Street, but the evidentiary base for these claims is indeterminate.

Mark Hutchinson

Sources:

ADI Matera, '100 Anni, 1908-2013: L'Affermarsi della Testimonianza Evangelica Pentecostale a Matera che Risale a Oltre', 24 November 2013, www.evangelicimatera.it/LA.../evangelo_matera_100_anni.pdf.

Giampietro, Antonio, Personaggi della storia materana. Matera, Altrimedia Edizioni, 1999.

Maragno, Gianni, L'anarchia estetica. Il Monaco Bianco, EditricErmes, 2011.

Sites, Charity, 'The Light of Italy', Pentecostal Evangel, 2012.

Spini, Giorgio, Italia Liberale e Protestanti, Torino: Claudiana, 2002.