The church of the Carmine, as before, had a unique nave and was lavishly embellished in a Baroque style, with frescoes and oil paintings by Giovanni Tuccari. He had five altars: the main one was dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, with a painting on wood always considered by Polidoro da Caravaggio, covered with silver-stained leaving visible only the Madonna's face (you can see it in the current Regional Museum), one was dedicated to St Albert of Trapani and was ornamented with four silver "plates" depicting the life of the saint (stored in current vestry until 1981 when they were stolen). On 28 December 1908 a catastrophic earthquake struck Messina. The Hon. Mirabello, then Minister of the Navy, ruthless anti-clerical, in an interview in early January 1909, accused the clergy of total absenteeism in the earthquake country. To repair this slander, Honorable Joseph Toscano wrote in the newspaper "Il Risveglio": «"Simply for the truth, the undersigned Giuseppe Toscano, former municipal councilor of the hapless Messina testify that immediately following the disaster, I met with three friars of the convent of the Carmine, almost naked, already worked to rescue the buried alive and, although they also just escaped the wreckage and free of any instrument, by sheer force of their arms drew to rescue as many as they could. I gave to them some clothing that I could draw from my house, one room was not completely knocked down, and sat with them at the pitiful work"».