Meet Fr. Stephen Brigandi

By Peggy Hickey 

The Agnews team had the opportunity to sit down with Fr. Brigandi recently and found him to be an easy guy to talk to, humble and excited to be here with us at St. Agnes. 

Fr. Brigandi is one of two children, his older sister lives in Sugarland, Texas (near Houston), and his parents live in East Meadow, Long Island. He describes his family as “a close Italian family”. He laughed as he recalled when he was a child his mom wanted a stove in the basement and his dad built an entire kitchen and dining area, he said, “we had most of our meals in the basement.” He added that his family is happy to have him here at St. Agnes because in addition to living closer to them, they enjoy watching him celebrate Mass on TV! 

Fr. Brigandi worked in his uncle’s Baskin Robbins store following graduation from East Meadow High School and decided that he needed and wanted to go to college. He always wanted to go to Colorado and was happily accepted to Regis College, which now has University status. During his time at Regis, a Jesuit college, he was asked to join the Jesuit Society and although he thought about it, he decided that it was not the time for him because he really wanted to go home after graduation. 

After his graduation from college and with the thought of becoming a priest neatly tucked away in the back of his mind, he went to work in Manhattan managing his uncle’s Baskin Robin’s store. After that experience he worked for a jewelry firm in Manhattan. After a few years, he decided that he really wanted to own his own retail store and went back to school to take some marketing courses. He went to work for his father who owned his own window display decorating business targeting corporate markets. It was at this time that the thoughts of becoming a priest came more and more to the front of his mind. His parents were very supportive of the priesthood path and encouraged him to pursue that goal. While working for his dad, Fr. Brigandi met many people in the retail industry and found that when most Christians found out he was thinking of becoming a priest, their response most often was “why would you want to do that!” but his Jewish clients would have a very different reaction and encouraged him to pursue the priesthood – Fr. Brigandi found that quite amazing. 

As thoughts of the priesthood continued to become more important to him, he made his decision and entered Immaculate Conception Seminary in Huntington and spent five years studying to be a priest. His first assignment as a priest was in Holy Name of Mary parish in Valley Stream where he spent five years. He then moved to Our Lady of Lourdes parish in Islip for two years before he was assigned this year to St. Agnes. 

Fr. Brigandi is happy to be here, he’s located closer to his family and can visit them more often and he looks forward to being a part of our parish. He will be the moderator for the youth group and has had an opportunity to meet some of the youth group members at a recent gathering in a parent’s home. He said he was grateful for that opportunity and noted with delight how involved some of the parents are with the youth group. Fr. Brigandi is impressed with the youth group members that he has met and stated that he wants to continue with the work that Fr. Jerry did with these important members of our parish. He will be working with Amy Kuble who has recently been hired as the parish Youth Minister. Fr. Brigandi will also be working with two grades of children from our elementary school and doing all of the typical priest duties as a pastoral associate. 

When asked what is one thing you love about being a priest, Fr. Brigandi replied “I find it an incredible privilege to be invited to share in another person’s faith; a sacred privilege to be a part of key moments in people’s lives and to touch someone’s heart through faith and presence.”