About Our Parish

The Roman Catholic Parish of St. Athanasius, founded in 1960, is a suburban, archdiocesan parish located in Reading, MA. The parish is a multi-ethnic, socially, culturally, and educationally diverse faith community.

Our History

Our parish, under the patronage of Saint Athanasius, a third century Bishop, was founded in 1960 to serve the spiritual needs of the growing east side of the Town of Reading. Originally 250 families we have grown to over 1900 households. This includes many who, although outside of the geographical boundaries of the parish, chose Saint Athanasius as their primary parish because of its particular style of worship, the warmth of its welcome and many of the ministries available for service.

St. Athanasius Church was designed by the architectural firm of Louis A. Scibelli and Daniel F. Tully in 1959. The church, when designed, was the largest "Hyperbolic Paraboloid" roof shell in the Western Hemisphere and perhaps the world at that time. It's stained glass windows were fabricated by Tolleri of Florence, Italy from the designs of Scibelli and Tully. The original altar was designed to be in the abstract form of an Alpha and Omega symbolic of the quote in the gospel "I am the beginning and the end." The "screen" [the lattice wall, no longer there] between the seats and the inner lobby was specifically designed to provide insight to the constant change once felt by the churchgoer on entering thru the front doors into the compressed space of the Narthex. [St Malachy's in Burlington and St Timothy's in Norwood were also designed by Tully.]

The Crucifix was sculpted by Italo Bernardini as a labor of love. On being given the commission to sculpt the Crucifix, Italo started mauling many ideas in his mind. Tens of sketches, carbon drawings, Scripture readings. In the end he determined that the figure of Christ on the cross was to signify victory over death, a step towards resurrection.

And then he faced the imposing challenge of size. (30 –foot high cross, with the 15-foot figure of Christ). A centuries–old method was used in the creation of the statue. A solid block of wood was produced by gluing smaller planks together.

The studio ceiling could not accommodate the huge raw material from which the Christus would emerge. The wooden block was laid on the floor and Italo literally labored over his massive work. Italo gave it shape by first brandishing axes and saws, then refining it with his heavy metal mallet and razor sharp chisels. To his intimates he would reveal that his toil was in reality a continuous dialog with Jesus – a way he liked to pray. He had to climb a ladder to be able to assess from above the progress of his work.

He strived to impart it a dynamic movement in space around a vertical axis, with an upwards thrust of the body, intended to signify the bursting open the confines of death. The end result was an imposing work, beautifully located in the church, apt to convey a message to the faithful as well as to complete the aesthetics of the striking and daring architectural church design.