Seeing the Mother of Grace statue carried down the main aisle toward the St. Peter’s Fiesta altar, Phyllis Moore, 90, shouted one of the first among dozens of “Viva” chants that reverberated Sunday across Gloucester’s downtown.

It was 9:30 a.m. — a half-hour prior to Fiesta’s annual outdoor Mass, let alone the noon procession. But the spirit of celebration was already in the air. “I would never miss any of this,” said Moore, who grew up Phyllis Orlando in the Fort neighborhood and was born the same year Gloucester’s statue of the patron saint of fishermen was created. “I can’t sing, but I sure can holler: Viva, San Pietro.”