Maggio recognized by Sons & Daughters of Italy
Jan 9, 2025
Andy Maggio — an Ocean View octogenarian who founded a ministry that has distributed more than 400,000 rosaries and scapulars — has been named Distinguished Citizen of the Year by the Ocean City (Md.) Sons & Daughters of Italy.
“It was such a surprise. I had no idea. My fiancée, Lil, and I were sitting there and talking to our guests at our table, and they started talking about this man who ships rosaries around the world. Every year they pick a citizen of the year, and it was me. I was very excited,” said Maggio, who has belonged to the organization more than 10 years.
He received the award during a party in December at the Grand Hotel in Ocean City to honor him for making sure schoolchildren, veterans, church members and everyone interested in receiving rosaries and scapulars gets them. (Visit www.rosariesandscapulars.org for more information.)
A scapular is a length of cloth suspended from both the front and back of the shoulders and worn as a reminder of the commitment to the Christian life.
A rosary is a string of beads used by Catholics for prayer and meditation.
“The people are fantastic at St. Ann Catholic Church. I have 50 volunteers who put together our rosary packages, and we mail them from here. It’s been worldwide. It started out at St. Ann, just putting out rosaries and scapulars, and it just exploded. We are in 150 veterans’ hospitals nationwide,” Maggio said.
Since the ministry started a few years ago, rosary and scapular sets, packaged in small plastic bags, have been assembled at the church or a rented storage building, but Maggio recently bought a building on Cedar Drive, behind Giant in Millville.
“The Blessed Mother works in strange ways,” he said, explaining that he sold his former home in Baltimore and was able to trade it for the building on Cedar Drive. He said he will use the second floor for the ministry, hoping to be working from there by February.
The ministry “started with my brother-in-law, really,” Maggio said.
His brother-in-law was a patient at a veterans’ hospital, and Maggio called and asked the chaplain there to tell his brother-in-law that he was praying for him and that a scapular be placed around the patient’s neck.
The priest said he had many requests for the scapulars but didn’t have any, so Maggio sent some to the hospital, beginning a ministry the eventual size of which he never expected.
“I told the chaplain, ‘I will make sure you get some immediately,’ and I sent them to him. The father said, ‘I have a counterpart in Boston who needs them at a V.A. hospital there,’” Maggio said.
As of September of 2024, he had distributed more than 400,000 rosaries and scapulars worldwide.
