Some three years ago, the statute of La Madonna Del Bosco – the patron saint and Protector of Panni – was recovered inside a church on Providence’s Federal Hill. The hand-painted statute, which was brought to Rhode Island from Italy in the early 1900s, was then accepted – and moved – to its permanent home inside Our Lady of Grace Church located at 4 Lafayette St. in Johnston.

So Sunday, the proud people who make up the revived and now internationally known Pannese Society of Rhode Island that actually dates back to 1909, held its annual Mass-Breakfast in honor of La Madonna Del Bosco. “We now have 120 members from all over the world with Pannese decent and are still growing,” said Joseph Spremulli, the elder statesman and long-time Johnston resident who serves as the Pannese Society president. “Today was a special day for our Society.”