 Both parishes give Mass in Italian, as well as English, and consist of a heavily Italian American congregation.The church is located on 9th and Watkins' Streets in South Philadelphia.The church of St. Nicholas of Tolentine owes its beginnings (1912) to the Italian Augustinian priests who, at the invitation of Archbishop Patrick John Ryan, came to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to start a church on Christian Street, between Eighth and Ninth Streets, to help minister to the very large influx of Italian immigrants.