The following is from the Celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the Archdiocese of Newark website.

 

 

 

St. Sebastian Society Processional Vara (crown section)  CLICK TO ENLARGE
1936
hand carved wood, polychrome and gilt
Loaned by the St. Sebastian Society,
          Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, Montclair, N.J.
Italian immigrants from Cerami, Sicily, brought the devotion to St. Sebastian to New Jersey. The Society of Saint Sebastian, founded in Montclair, New Jersey in 1926 honors St. Sebastian each year with a procession through the streets of Montclair and Glen Ridge.

          Our exhibit is a small portion of the “vara,” or saint. carrier on which the statue of St. Sebastian is borne through the streets. Hand-made in the 1930s by craftsmen from Cerami, it is not only a tribute to their devotion to the saint but one of the largest such processional pieces in the United States, and one of the finest examples of 20th century American folk art.