Pennsylvania Patriot-News reporter Jim Lewis tells a beautiful story about a devout barber who died last month at 76:
When a Pennsylvania governor needed a haircut, he engaged a state police escort, left his office in the Capitol and traveled just up the street to Antonio "Tony" Macri's barber shop.Macri's apostolate reached well outside his shop. With his priest's permission, he brought the Eucharist to prisoners. Read the whole article.
There, he sat in Macri's chair, listened to the Italian music and opera playing on a radio and admired the religious artwork that hung on the wall: a re-creation of the Holy Spirit descending on the apostles that was seared into wood with hot metal tools by the barber himself in the back room.
Five governors wandered regularly into Macri's State Street shop, where Italy and Roman Catholicism were celebrated. The barber even attracted several Catholic bishops as regular customers, as well as countless state workers who were eager for a haircut on their lunch break.
