Apply for the 2025 Institute!

By Maria Kapsalis, Orla Maxcy, Claire Taylor, and Navya Vasireddy

BOSTON - Even in 90-degree weather, Amanda Jimenez couldn’t miss the chance to eat fresh corkscrew pasta swirled in a parmesan cheese wheel. 

Jimenez, a rising freshman at Berklee College of Music, flew in from Miami to tour the campus. Her detour at the Saint Agrippina Feast landed her in the North End, Boston’s Little Italy, scoping the city before starting the semester. 

“Food is such an important factor in terms of how we communicate with other people,” Jimenez said with a steaming bowl of pasta beside her. “If you have a language barrier, the one thing you can agree on is that the food's really good.”

Celebrating its 110th year this summer, the festival serves as a unifying space for the Italian-American community through food, live music, and camaraderie, bringing a piece of Italy to the North End. The focus on tradition and culture bridges generations of Italian immigrants while welcoming Boston’s diversity. 

Christian Kulikoski, secretary of the Saint Agrippina Men’s Society and event organizer, sees the festival as a way to continue his family tradition by connecting to his past and creating a foundation for his children. 

“It has a lot of meaning for families to come back together and for the new generation of kids to see a slice of the past,” he said. “Most of all, I think it also is kind of culturally a big anchor to bring everyone back together.”

This weekend marked Kulikoski’s 30th year carrying the 2000-pound canopy holding the statue of St. Agrippina, an honor he had sought since childhood. Kids first hold flags before a promotion to the banner, until eventually carrying the Saint, Kulikoski said.

“Becoming a carrier under the saint was like joining the NFL,” he said. “It marks the stages of my life as it did for my family before me and as I hope it will for my daughters into the future.”

The festival honors Saint Agrippina, a princess who was killed by Roman Emperor Valerian for her Christian faith. It celebrates the miracles that protected the passengers who transported her body from Rome to Sicily.

The focus on faith develops a “collective identity,” said Father Michael Penna of St. Leonard’s Church, a North End native who grew up attending the festival yearly with his family. 

“The traditions here, the feasts, all of those societies were really representative of lesser well-off people who came to this country,” Penna said. “Being raised in that climate, where you can see them celebrate something that helped them foster and cultivate those beautiful values in their lives.”

Because of last year's popularity, the vendors closed the feast early this year. 

“This year, they’re actually stopping the feast at nine because it got so packed last year [that] it was uncontrollable. It's definitely evolved in a good way,” North End resident Gabriella Celona said. 

This popularity is part of the draw.

“Coming to the North End every August is super important to me. I keep it dear to my heart,” Celona said.

Edited by Charlie Kephart