Exclusive | NYC priest gifts sprawling, 100-piece Nativity scene he spent his life collecting to Italian American museum

Just in time for Christmas.A Manhattan priest gave a New York City museum the greatest holiday gift this season — donating his sprawling, Nativity scene collection that he spent a lifetime cultivating from around the globe.Father Louis Scurti, 80, gifted more than 100 little wooden figurines of Jesus, handcrafted angels and antique Wise Men to the Italian American Museum in Lower Manhattan, in what he said was a “bittersweet” moment.“It was a joy to locate them and to know that they will be shared by more than the Scurti family,” the reverend told The Post.“They have tons of visitors every year, and they have children going to the museum, and that’ll be a great education and exposure for them,” he said of the cultural organization, which called his gift a classic symbol of the Italian American Christmas.“You come to a point in your life when things are timed, and timing is important,” Scurti added.Scurti’s fascination with the “Persipica” — the Italian tradition of the Nativity scene — began when he was a young boy in Jersey City, NJ.Each Christmas, he would forgo GI Joes and Hot Wheels in favor of playing beneath the tree with his family’s delicate Nativity scene that he would one day inherit, a hobby his relatives encouraged.When his parents gave him and his brothers cash to buy themselves treats at the holiday markets, Scurti instead opted to purchase additional pieces, like sheep or a bridge.“My brother did the comic books.I did the Persipica,” said Scurti.

“My parents supported my addiction.”Scurti’s passion was unwavering, even as he began a career as a teacher before realizing his true calling was the priesthood, and he became a marriage and family therapy doctor before eventually going into semi-retirement at St.Anthony’s in Little Italy.Travel became another major hobby for Scurti in his adult years, and he always made sure to scoop up an additional piece in each country he visited, with many coming from Rome a...