Antonio Demo
Father Antonio Demo (April 23, 1870 – January 2, 1936) was a New York City Italian American priest and civic activist.

He studied at seminaries in Italy and entered the Scalabrini Order in 1894. Prior to his ordination, Demo served in the Italian military. He was ordained a priest on July 20, 1896, the same year he emigrated to the United States. He initially did missionary work for two years in the parish of the Sacred Heart in Boston, which served a congregation of Italian immigrants mostly from Genoa. On July 19, 1899, he was assigned as assistant pastor of Our Lady of Pompeii Church, established in 1892 by Father Pietro Bandini in New York City's Greenwich Village on Bleecker and Carmine Streets. In 1900 he was appointed pastor of the church, which served what was then one of largest Italian-American communities in America.

Father Demo exercised his apostolate among the Italian immigrants, serving until 1923 also as the director of the St. Raphael Society for the Protection of Italian Immigrants, an organization that had been specifically formed in 1891 by Bandini to assist newly arrived immigrants and that he helped to strengthen. His spiritual care and leadership were put to test on March 25, 1911, when he had to respond to the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire, which claimed the lives of 146 female employees. Because of his many merits in the care of the Italian community he was decorated with the "Cross of Knight of the Crown of Italy".

In 1923 Father Demo learned that the church would have to be demolished to allow extension of the Sixth Avenue. Father Demo organized a campaign to buy a nearby property and with the help of a leading Italian American architect, Matthew Del Gaudio, build a new church and rectory. The new church was available for the congregation in May 1927. In late Summer 1931 the parochial school also was opened.

In 1935 Father Demo became Pompei's pastor emeritus and superintendent of its parochial school. He died in 1936 in Greenwich Village in New York City, and thousands of parishioners and friends, including Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, paid their respects.

In 1941, the intersection of Bleecker Street and Sixth Avenue was named Father Demo Square. In 2009, after a renovation, Father Demo Square was honored with a Village Award by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.
Q15141148
Scalabrini Order
LOC
Q349511
Italian military
ORG
Q1449
Genoa
LOC
Q18155537
Our Lady of Pompeii Church
LOC
Q205380
Greenwich Village
LOC
Q2724557
Bleecker
LOC
Q974693
Italian-American
PER
Q109873
Sixth Avenue
LOC
Q12366924
parochial school
MEDIA
Q312502
Fiorello La Guardia
PER
Q2724557
Bleecker Street
LOC
Q28209059
Father Demo Square
LOC
Q5604904
Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
ORG
Q4776569
Antonio Demo
PER
1870-04-23T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
April 23, 1870
DATE
1936-01-02T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
January 2, 1936
DATE
1894-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1894
DATE
1896-07-20T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
July 20, 1896
DATE
1899-07-19T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
July 19, 1899
DATE
1892-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1892
DATE
1900-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1900
DATE
1923-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1923
DATE
1891-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1891
DATE
1911-03-25T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
March 25, 1911
DATE
1923-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1923
DATE
1927-05-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
May 1927
DATE
1931-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1931
DATE
1935-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1935
DATE
1936-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1936
DATE
1941-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1941
DATE
2009-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
2009
DATE
date of birth
inception
located on street