1883 – 1972 (August 6)

Carmine Aurigemma was born in Monteforte, Avellino, Italy, on April 4, 1883. He was received as a postulant by the Order’s Congregation of San Giovanni a Carbonara in October 1897, and entered the novitiate at the convent of Madonna del Buon Consiglio in Naples on April 5, 1898. He made his simple profession on April 9, 1899, taking the name Serafino, and solemn profession on February 2, 1904. He was ordained into the priesthood at the age of 22 on October 8, 1905, by Bishop Ernesto Angiulli, auxiliary bishop of Naples, in the chapel of Villa Driscoll in Naples.

In December 1905, Father Aurigemma was missioned to the United States to serve Italian immigrants. He arrived on January 28, 1906 in Boston, and was first assigned to the Parish of Saint Rita in Philadelphia. In 1910 he was transferred to Holy Rosary Parish, Lawrence, Massachusetts, and the following year to Saint Paul’s in Mechanicville, New York. It was to be in this town that he would serve the Church most of his priestly life. He organized the Church of the Assumption in Mechanicville in 1919, when he purchased the former Saint Paul Church building and renamed it.

Father Aurigemma was called to serve briefly at various times in other parishes of the Province, for brief intervals, including at Saint Patrick’s in Cambridge and Saint John’s in Schaghticoke.

In 1961 he retired in Mechanicville where he had spent 42 years of his 56 years as a priest. Even in retirement, he served the people he loved so much, celebrating Mass and visiting the confined.

A few weeks before his death he moved into Villa Maria Nursing Home, Albany, New York. He died on Sunday, August 6, in the 89th year of his life and 67th year of his priesthood. Prior Provincial, Harry Cassel, O.S.A. celebrated the Funeral Mass at the Assumption Church with Father Dante Girolami, O.S.A. as homilist. Presiding was Auxiliary Bishop Edward Maginn, a former Sunday School student of Father Aurigemma at Saint Paul’s Parish.

Father Aurigemma is buried in the Augustinian plot of the cemetery at Saint Paul's, Mechanicville, New York.