This dissertation explores the function and meaning of devotional practices for Italian immigrants, their children and grandchildren in San Pedro, California. It brings together historical, psychological, and pastoral analyses to demonstrate how the practice of devotions to Italian patron saints spiritually validates and memorializes the experience of immigration. The devotions are viewed as a form of pastoral care for immigrants, helping them address experiences of economic crisis, hunger, survival, loss of loved ones or fear of loss associated with the fishing industry, and displacement from the natal land. The vibrancy of the devotions in later generations is explained and explored in light of familial emotional processes and the material cultural characteristics of the devotional practices in this context. The three main topics described include the visual aspects of the devotions, the impact of the fishing industry on devotional practices, and the religious meaning of food in this setting. The Italian dimensions of the devotions, as well as the construction of ethnicity, gender, and class are also addressed. Interviews with members of three immigrant generations provide the primary data for this study, supplemented by participant observation and the examination of available historical documents. Theoretical tools include Bordieu’s concept of “habitus,” employed to identify the shared meanings, habits and images that characterize the devotional practices and function in turn to preserve religious structures. Winnicott’s notion of “transitional space” is used to interpret psychological and spiritual functions of the devotions. Grounded in the field of pastoral theology, this study exemplifies Elaine Graham’s call to engage in the “critical phenomenology of pastoral practice.” Values arising out of the Italian Catholic devotional practices are identified and interpreted as examples of the embodied “practical wisdom” of the local faith community. Implications for the wider field of pastoral theology and care are noted.