This post is the second part of my series of images of Giuseppe Maria Abbate (1886-1963), the Italian-American Celestial Messenger. They are part of my collection of documents related to Abbate and his Church. See part one.
In 1917, Abbate founded a formal church organization. It was called La Chiesa Cattolica di Nuova Gerusalemme del Messaggiero Celeste (the New Jerusalem Catholic Church of the Celestial Messenger). In Italian, the word is usually spelled “messagero,” but, for some reason, the Church always used “messagiero.” At about the same time, Abbate also established a male religious order, the Order of the Celestial Messenger.
The New Jerusalem Church had its headquarters in a small, three-story building at 2021 DeKalb Street in the Near West Side area of Chicago, in one of the “Little Italies.” It housed a school and a kitchen on the base floor. Upstairs was the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church, also known as the Santo Tempio (the Holy Temple) and, at times, the Tempio del Sole (the Temple of the Sun). At the top level was the monastery, where Abbate lived and had his offices. The Church used the roof terrace for processions and other ceremonies.
After the Church was founded, Abbate most often referred to himself as Padre Celeste (the Heavenly Father). Most, if not all, of the early adherents were Italian immigrants, and the vast majority were women. It is difficult to establish the exact number of followers, but they were at least 300 and possibly as many as 500 at some point.
In May 1919, the New Jerusalem Catholic Church of the Celestial Messenger filed a Common Trust Agreement with the State of Illinois, which later incorporated it. According to the official statutes, Abbate was “the sole trustee of the Church,” and the document underlined his absolute authority and his uniqueness as divinely elected and even divine. Although he might have successors as the church leader, none would have the same elevated status as he had. No complete list of members seems to have been extant, but, for example, there is a formal document dated February 1920 certifying that Abbate was a member of his own Church. He signed the certificate as Padre Celeste.
The building at DeKalb Street at the time the Church bought it.
The reconstructed building that housed the school, residence, offices, and the temple.
The temple in the early 1920s.
The Main Altar.
Small altars and the Celestial Messenger’s early vestments.
A series of images from the Sacred Heart Church at DeKalb Street, Chicago, 1920s through 1940s.
Magnus Lundberg 
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