BENSALEM, Pa – Everyone seems like they’re arriving to Mass at the same time.
It’s the first Sunday of Daylight Saving Time, and if it wasn’t for the 4 p.m. Mass at St. Ephrem Catholic Church in Bensalem, Bucks County, you’d get the sense that a lot of parishioners might have chalked the third Sunday of Lent up as a loss, and a subsequent trip to the confessional booth.
Father Mike Speziale fits the bill of a younger Italian Catholic Priest from the Philly burbs. He’ll listen to your sins and your take on the latest Eagles trade all in the same sit-down.
Father Mike’s homily covers a lot of ground in the midst of the Lenten season, all under the umbrella of the Red Hot Chili Peppers song “The Other Side.”
But among the highlights, believe it or not, is a horse.
“People ask us to do prayers for all different reasons,” Father Mike said via cell phone the Monday after Mass. “In our backyard, we have Parx Casino, Parx Racetrack. Once a year, they have a special banquet for all the jockeys and trainers and owners of the horses who won the most, they give out prizes.”
It’s also worth noting, Father Mike is a big Philly sports fan, but not a big horse racing fan.
“No, no. It’s one of the vices I don’t know much about, which is good,” he explained.
He sort of just got saddled with the banquet gig.
“Five years ago, I got to St. Ephrem’s, and I kind of inherited this and I don’t know much about the horse racing and all that goes into it,” he admitted.
Father Mike’s “go-to” banquet bit involved saying they should name a racehorse after the little-known St. Ephrem.
“There’s only two St. Ephrem’s churches in the whole country. There’s one in Brooklyn, New York. It’s not a popular name or saint, but he is a doctor of the church,” explained Father Mike.
The years, banquets, and the joke went by. Until last year.
Enter famed racehorse trainer John Servis: a former parishioner who trained former Triple Crown hopeful Smarty Jones.
Servis had acquired a new, as-yet-unnamed racehorse at auction and began training him to run.
“Father, I’m gonna take you up on it. You say it every year. He named the horse St. Ephrem,” Father recalled. “They were looking for a name of a horse, we’re in your backyard. St. Ephrem’s Church is in our boundaries, so name your horse St. Ephrem and people will come out and support it.”
And so it was that a go-to joke at an annual banquet turned into a trip to the track for some members of the St. Ephrem congregation.
“His first race at Parx was December of 2025, he (Servis) called me, said ‘Hey, the horse is gonna race. Bring the people’.”
The parishioners of St. Ephrem’s showed up. And so did St. Ephrem, the racehorse, that is.
“He won his first race,” Father Mike recalled.
“It was right after Christmas, Christmas break,” he said. “We had fifty to a hundred parishioners there rooting the horse on. Some of the school kids were there ‘cuz they were off from school.”
A few weeks into the new year, St. Ephrem raced again.
Another first place finish. 2-0 start. But it didn’t stop there.
Yep, you guessed it.
“He just raced this past Tuesday in the rain. He still raced, he still won. It’s been wild,” Father Mike said. “It’s really taken off and I had no idea what was going to come of this horse.”
Remember, Father Mike’s not a big horse racing fan.
“I’m a sports fan but I’m not a horse guy. I think the Phillies won three in a row, the Sixers, I don’t know, they’re doing a rough job right now.”
But he’s starting to come around on the horse racing.
“Even the racetrack people and the people that work at Parx are like, this is very rare. You’re taking this too lightly,” he recalled them telling him. “A first-time horse racing for the first three times in the rain in the mud. For some horses, it takes many, many tries to even get to three wins.”
A go-to joke at an annual banquet turned into a trip to the track for some members of the St. Ephrem congregation.
Father Mike Speziale
He says it’s not just about horse races – it’s an opportunity to reach out.
“I just thought people would want to talk about the horse and all that stuff, but this horse has done a lot of amazing things. Even from these races, meeting people on the fringes, maybe away from God and the church and it’s actually causing people to have these conversations about coming back and confession. It’s been a good thing for the parish because I’ve learned a lot not just about the horse racing, but all the people involved in putting this together. And they’re people that are searching for the Lord, too,” he said.
He says he believes when faith and sports intersect, especially in the Philly area, it speaks to people.
“People are searching for that. They’re not alone. If people are at the racetrack, I think Jesus would be at the racetrack. Trying to meet people where they’re at,” he surmised. “Philly has got that hardworking, underdog mentality, stuff like that. You hear of a racehorse named after a church, got a lot of laughs in the beginning. No one really expected, not even for a win or a second or third place, and three races, three first place.”
Don’t know much about St. Ephrem the person?
“He wasn’t the main guy, wasn’t a priest or a bishop, he was kind of on the side,” Fr. Speziale explained. “He was known for writing poetry and hymns for the church. I think he’s underestimated. Kind of fits the narrative of the horse, too.”
A saint from the sidelines, and a horse named from a joke at a banquet. Now, it’s all something horse racing fans are starting to take seriously.
“God’s working in all different ways, even through a racehorse,” Speziale said. “We’re still in the midst of this, so it’s pretty cool. It’s amazing, just the following it’s gotten and just an incredible story so far.”
So Father Mike says he can’t wait to see his church’s namesake take to the track in the next couple weeks, if it doesn’t conflict with some sort of important upcoming dates.
“Hopefully, before Good Friday, Holy Thursday – I don’t know if I’ll be able to make those,” Father Mike added.