Joseph Maria Pernicone

Joseph Pernicone was born in Regalbuto, Sicily, to Salvatore and Petronilla (née Taverna) Pernicone.[1] He received his early training at the seminaries in Nicosia and Catania.[1] He came to the United States in 1920.[2] He continued his studies at Cathedral College in New York City and St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers.[3]

He was ordained to the priesthood on December 18, 1926.[4] His first assignment was as a curate at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Yonkers.[1] In 1932, he earned a Doctor of Canon Law degree from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.[1] He was pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel's Church (Poughkeepsie, New York)[5] from 1932 to 1944, and served as master of ceremonies at the Requiem Mass for Marchese Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of wireless telegraphy, in 1937.[6]

From 1944 to 1966, he was pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in the Bronx.[1] During his tenure in the Bronx, he oversaw the construction of a parochial school which opened in 1949.[7] He was named a papal chamberlain in 1945, and raised to the rank of domestic prelate in 1952.[3]

On April 6, 1954, Pernicone was appointed auxiliary bishop of the New York and titular bishop of Hadrianopolis in Honoriade by Pope Pius XII.[4] He received his episcopal consecration on the following May 5 from Cardinal Francis Spellman, with Bishops Joseph Francis Flannelly and Edward Vincent Dargin serving as co-consecrators, at St. Patrick's Cathedral.[4] During his tenure as an auxiliary bishop, he also served as pastor of Holy Trinity Church in Poughkeepsie and episcopal vicar of Dutchess and Putnam Counties.[2] After reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75, he retired as auxiliary bishop on November 28, 1978.[4]

He died from a stroke at Jacobi Hospital in the Bronx, aged 81.[2]