Great-Granddaughter of St. Sebastian Statue Creator Paints Scenes of Melilli

Every May, the blessed statue of St. Sebastian is paraded down city streets, the culmination of a two-mile pilgrimage from the cemetery in Middlefield to the Renaissance Revival church on Washington Street in Middletown.

The passionate journey is made by barefoot parishioners of St. Sebastian Church here in Middletown, the sister city to the Italian city of Melilli, Sicily. 

Now, the great-granddaughter of the statue's creator, artist and sculptor Sebastian G. Marchese, the painter Donna Dubreuil Favreau has an exhibit at Ursel's Web Gallery and Frame Shop in Middletown, work inspired by her travels abroad to discover her ancestral roots.

Favreau is an award-winning oil painter who came to Middletown at age 6 and grew up on Hotchkiss Street near St. Mary of Czestowochowa Church, "smack in the middle of the Anninos and Marcheses," she says, graduated from the public schools and now lives in Westbrook.

Little did she know then how important it was that Sebastian G. Marchese, who moved to Ferry Street at age 33 in 1904 with his wife and three daughters, sculpted the statue. Then, she thought little of the I Nuri, stopping by their three-home family "compound," on Hotchkiss Street, Favreau jokes, every year. He was one of the early residents of our city.

Marchese, who was offered the position of artist of Melilli and was self-taught, turned down the job to emigrate to Middletown. "They wanted to keep him in town," Favreau said. He eventually found work as a stonemason at Pierson and Co. in Cromwell.

It's funny to think about it now, Favreau said, but she always considered herself a little French-Canadian girl as her paternal family came from Montagne, Canada, where she lived until age 6. It wasn't until later in life when she began exploring her own genealogy that she became interested in her Italian side.

In April 2009, Favreau and her husband traveled abroad to her maternal great-grandfather's homeland. "I took a bunch of pictures and did three paintings from the trip. It seems like it just grew on me and now it has become an obsession," she said of painting from these photographs. "I may have to go back."

They flew in to Rome and traveled down the eastern coast, to Turin, Capri, and took a train ferry over to Messina, rented a car and visited Mt. Aetna, "it was behaving itself then," Favreau said. She was on a mission to find out why her great-grandfather left Melilli and came to the city in America. 

Favreau met a teacher Sebastiana Corvo LaBella who had written the preface to the book, "Arrivaderci Melilli, Hello Middletown" by James Annino, who knew all about her family. 

She learned about the Sicilians, skilled craftsmen and merchants who, through hard work and a strong sense of community, created a sister city to Melilli here in Connecticut in a neighborhood east of Main Street near the river.

When her great-grandfather died in his late 80s still living in his Hotchkiss Street neighborhood, Favreau said, the I Nuri still paraded around her childhood home in honor of him and his contribution to Middletown history, chanting, "E Chiamamulu Paisanu! Primu Diu E Sammastianu!" which, translated to English means, "He's one of our own! First God and then St. Sebastian." 

Favreau took classes with local artists to hone her painting skills but is, like her great-grandfather, self-taught. She belongs to the Art Guild of Middletown, Arts and Crafts Association/Gallery 53 of Meriden and is an elected member of the Clinton Art Society and joined of the Maple and Main Gallery in Chester in November.

Favreau has won a best in show at Wesleyan University's Zilkha Gallery on a pastel painting. She has sold paintings to private collections around the United States, England and Canada. She recently sold two oil monotypes to Baystate Hospital's new Heart Vascular Center in Springfield, Mass., and has a painting in the Permanent Collection of the Westbrook Public Library. 

As for the "Suddenly Sicilian" show, Favreau encourages anyone who's of Sicilian descent or a fan of the annual pageant to stop by for a look. "It's a nice, cheap way to travel to Italy without spending the airfare."

"Suddenly Sicilian," paintings of Melilli and Eastern Sicily by Favreau, is on view at the gallery at 140 Washington Street through the end of February and the eight paintings are for sale. Hours are Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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