In the 1890s, Russo left a successful career in academia to minister for more than ten years to the Italian immigrants in New York City's Lower East Side, who faced poverty and discrimination by local priests.

He founded the Church of Our Lady of Loreto in 1891, which grew to 3,000 weekly parishioners, as well as schools for boys and girls and parochial clubs and sodalities.

When he reached the age of six, Russo expressed an interest in entering religious life and, with one of his sisters, made pilgrimages to shrines and observed the Catholic feasts and days of abstinence.

With two friends, he traveled on foot to France, begging for food and shelter along the way, and ultimately entering the Jesuit novitiate in Pau on September 7, 1862.

[8] During his time at Boston College, Russo published his first book, Summa Philosophica, comprising philosophy lectures he had delivered to students.

One of his students was the future cardinal and archbishop of Boston, William Henry O'Connell, who wrote in an 1880 letter:[9] Certainly Father Russo is a stern teacher.

[2] With that, Russo gave up a successful career in academia and spent the rest of his life ministering to poor Italian immigrants in New York City,[11] who, he wrote, "worked like slaves" for subsistence wages.

[21] As one biographer noted, "It must have been, humanly speaking, no small sacrifice...for he had held high positions in Boston and New York and his work had lain almost entirely among the better instructed and wealthy.

[17] While Russo initially believed that the primary obstacle to the Italians' spiritual wellbeing was their own "indifference" to religion, after five years ministering to them, he concluded that neglect by clergy charged with their pastoral care was the foremost problem.

[20] Russo and another Italian Jesuit, Aloysius Romano, physically converted a rented barroom on Elizabeth Street it into a chapel holding about 150 people.

They built an altar and two confessionals, cleaned the walls, painted, and named the chapel Missione Italiana della Madonna di Loreto.

The first Mass was held in the chapel on August 16, 1891, the Feast of San Rocco, with Russo delivering the sermon in Italian and the provincial superior being the main celebrant.

[26] With his congregation shrinking, Kearney reopened St. Patrick's to Italians, who became the majority of parishioners, depleting funds from Russo's indebted church.

Due to poor conditions in the basement, after two months, he purchased two houses adjoining the church for $35,000[32] (equivalent to approximately $1.11 million in 2023),[33] and renovated them for another $8,000.

[37] While it was intended that a Neapolitan Jesuit working in the Rocky Mountains replace Russo at Our Lady of Loreto, he was succeeded by William H.

[27] Russo's funeral was held at Our Lady of Loreto, with the Mass celebrated by the provincial superior and the absolution of the dead prayed by Archbishop Corrigan.