EAST?LONGMEADOW – Following his experience for many years as a religious brother, former East Longmeadow resident Rich Gallerani picked up an unlikely hobby: woodcarving.

Gallerani graduated from East Longmeadow High School in 1981, and he notes that from a young age, he’d always thought of becoming a priest.

“The celebration of mass appealed to me and made sense in a way that is difficult to articulate,” Gallerani told Reminder Publications. “I was drawn to that role in the spiritual community. A life dedicated to helping people appealed to me very much.”

After his graduation, Gallerani attended Holyoke Community College. He then moved on to complete his bachelor’s degree at Saint Michael’s College in Vermont. At Saint Michael’s, Gallerani was “able to explore the possibility of priesthood” while completing his degree.

“I was introduced to the priests and brothers of the Society of Saint Edmund, the small, originally French, religious order that founded Saint Michael’s College,” Gallerani explained. “It was about a year after graduation that I approached the Society with my interest in formally beginning the process of becoming a member of the order.”

As Gallerani grew older, his once “idealistic notions” of making a difference in the world through priesthood matured, and he reevaluated why he wanted to enter the religious world. He soon found that as he approached ordination, he was “increasingly unhappy” with the lifestyle.

“Not that I didn’t enjoy the community dimension of religious life, the education, the spirituality and the lifelong friendships I’d developed; I just began to want other things and I felt I was not in love with the life the way one ought to who is approaching ordination,” he explained.

While he does not regret it, Gallerani declined ordination and eventually left religious life.

During his seminary at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, Louisiana, Gallerani was taking a walk along the banks of the Mississippi River. He spotted a piece of driftwood along the bank, picked it up, and brought it back to their religious house. The driftwood was a piece of Cypress, and as Gallerani held it, he envisioned the body of the crucified Christ.

“I can’t explain how; I just saw it,” he said. “I was compelled to buy some small, inexpensive, poorly made carving tools from a local hobby supply store and began hacking away at the wood to reveal what I saw in the wood.”

Gallerani spent a summer working on the piece. He noted he made several mistakes and accidentally cut himself while working on the piece, however, he eventually managed to carve the crucified body of Christ that he had envisioned.

“It came out rather unsophisticated and Carolingian in style, but not too bad for a first try,” he said.

Gallerani gave the piece to one of his friends as an ordination gift over 20 years ago, and his friend still has it hanging on his wall today.

“Needless to say, I was hooked,” Gallerani said of his new hobby.

Following the discovery of his new love-affair with woodcarving, Gallerani enrolled himself in the American Woodcarving School in Wayne, New Jersey. At the school, students are introduced to the basics of woodcarving including how to use the tools, the techniques, safety, sharpening and more.

“Each new student is required to complete three compulsory projects: a small three-quarter whale, a tree leaf in relief and finally the kneeling monk in contemplation. Each project is designed to introduce the students to tools like the murphy knife, v-tools, gouges, veiners and skews,” Gallerani explained.

Though he completed the program at American Woodcarving School 16 years ago, Gallerani has continued honing his craft. He’s made and sold several Cottonwood Bark Santa Claus ornaments. He shared the process of carving the ornaments, explaining that each ornament takes several thousand cuts to come to completion.

“Each project is different, but in every case it is a matter of roughing out the basic shape by removing the excess wood and then carving in more and more detail until the finished piece reveals itself,” he said.

While he doesn’t make a habit of entering woodcarving competitions, Gallerani entered the Northern New Jersey Woodcarvers Convention as it is sponsored by the woodcarving school he belongs to.

“It is a friendly competition and a fun way to display my work, I have no desire to compete,” he said. “I carve because I love it, it is relaxing and is a completely ‘other side of the brain’ activity from my job as an inner city Catholic prep school history teacher.”

Woodcarving began as a hobby for Gallerani, however in recent years he’s had numerous people requesting special-order carvings.

“I have a commissioned statue of the Virgin Mary set to begin soon, as well as a large statue of St. Edmund of Canterbury for Saint Michael’s College in Vermont. Each piece takes hundreds of hours to complete, not including the sanding and lacquer finishing process at the end,” Gallerani said. He noted he’s open to taking commissioned work.

When he isn’t working on his woodcarvings, Gallerani enjoys working on his novel, which goes in conjunction with his History of the Holocaust course.

To contact Gallarani regarding his carvings, go to https://rgallerani.wixsite.com/parable-woodcarvings or email at parablecarvings@yahoo.com.