T he church is picturesquely located on a hill in Lemont, a village on the south-western outskirts of Chicago. The first Polish settlers arrived here in the 1860s. Like the Germans and the Irish, they found jobs at local quarries and at the construction of the canal connecting Lake Michigan with the Mississippi River. Initially Lemont had one Catholic parish of St. Patrick, but over time individual national groups started to apply for the possibility to create separate communities. The decision to establish a Polish parish was made in November 1882, and Archbishop Patrick A. Feehan appointed Fr. Leopold Moczygemba to organize it. This was an informed choice and turned out to be very wise. Fr. Moczygemba was an outstanding figure and he was well respected in the Polish community as a fearless pioneer and a charismatic clergyman. He arrived in Texas at the beginning of the 1850s as a young Franciscan missionary. Enchanted by the new world, he managed to fire with enthusiasm a group of Poles from Upper Silesia, including his four brothers, and they made a long and dangerous journey across the ocean to establish Panna Maria, the first Polish settlement in the United States, under the leadership of this exceptional priest, in December 1854. However, Father Moczygemba soon left the colony – perhaps because of conflicts with the settlers, caused by the unexpectedly difficult living conditions, or perhaps because of the duties assigned to him by his superiors. He travelled to Rome several times, where he served as a Minor Penitentiary at St. Peter’s Basilica. He was also the first Minister General of the Conventual Franciscans in the USA. Finally, in September 1874, he started working among the Polish diaspora in Chicago and for some time associated himself with the Resurrectionist Congregation, who were involved in the work among Polish immigrants. In 1875 he was elected the second President of the Polish Roman Catholic Union of America and raised funds to create a Polish seminary in Detroit (currently in Orchard Lake, Michigan). He is rightly called the patriarch of the Polish community.

Fr. Moczygemba began the foundation of the new parish in Lemont with the purchase of 20 acres of land located on a hill, which he called Jasna Góra. Thanks to successful fundraising, Bishop Patrick J. Conway was able to consecrate the cornerstone of the church as early as in August 1883. The school building was being erected at the same time as the church. The construction work, which lasted until April the following year, was carried out by James Helbig’s company. The church and school were dedicated by Archbishop Feehan on Sunday, August 31, 1884.

In 1898 the school building burned down completely. The new building was quickly built with the support of the owners of the local quarry. However, this was not the end of the calamities affecting the parish. In 1928, as a result of a short circuit in the electrical system, another fire broke out and destroyed the church and presbytery buildings. Thanks to the mobilization of parishioners, this time the buildings were rebuilt and put into use before the end of 1929. The ceremony of the dedication of the church was performed by Bishop Stanisław Bona on January 1, 1930.

At the beginning of the 1920s the parish had about 3.5 thousand members. Soon, however, limestone mining in the local quarries was stopped and the construction of canals was completed. Changes in the labor market certainly affected the number of parishioners, but the community continued to develop, and in 1960 even a new school building was erected. A perceptible religious revival of the community occurred when Karol Wojtyła became the pope. It entailed the creation of the Polish Club and of the John Paul II Polish School, which held classes on Saturdays, and the Polish language could be heard in the church again. The next stage of the development of the parish took place in the early 1990s, when Lemont attracted the Poles who had come to Chicago in the 1980s, and after achieving stability decided to move to suburban districts. In 1997 the parish had about 1500 members and about 900 children attended the school. In 1992 Lemont was left by the Felician Sisters and the school was taken over by the laity.

The hill in Lemont has retained its distinctively Polish character. The patrons of the surrounding streets are: Sobieski, Ledóchowski, Czacki, Moczygemba, one can also find Pulaski Street nearby. The presence of the Polish community is strongly felt at the local cemetery. The land for its foundation was purchased in December 1886, and Konstancja Stefańska, who died in April 1887, was the first to find the place of eternal rest there. One of the oldest features at the cemetery is the burial place of Father Leopold Moczygemba, the nephew of the parish founder, and parish priests: Kandyd Kozłowski, Władysław J. Nosal and Henryk Jagodziński, as well as the Felician Sisters.

SS. Cyril and Methodius Church and the parish house were built according to the design of an architect of German origin, Erhard Brielmaier. From 1887 he managed the company E. Brielmaier & Sons in Milwaukee, working with six of his thirteen children – five sons and daughter Clothilde, a successful artist and author of church polychromes as well as other works. It is estimated that E. Brielmaier & Sons designed more than eight hundred churches, including the monumental St. Josaphat Basilica in Milwaukee (1896-1901).

The church in Lemont was built of red brick and steel frame construction. It has a single-tower façade, decorated with arcade friezes and false windows closed with semicircles. The upper floors of the tower feature biforia windows. These are characteristic elements of the Romanesque Revival style. The interior is single space. The walls of the main body feature 12 large windows, where stained-glass designs with depictions of saints and Marian themes were installed in 1942. The windows carry the names of the founders and benefactors of the parish, including the parish priest Władysław J. Nosal and his relatives. On the stained-glass windows in the chancel we can see images of Immaculate Mary, Christ the King and St. Joseph. Here, just like in the main body of the church and in the parts adjacent to the chancel, there are numerous donation inscriptions on the glazing; most of them are written in English, which reflects the assimilation process of the Polish community. The paintings on the wall of the chancel arch also deserve attention. They depict episodes from the ministry of the patron saints of the church – Cyril and Methodius. On the golden vault of the apse of the chancel, in the grotesque frame, there are medallions with half-figures of Christ and four Evangelists. The main altar has a modest, architectural form. The side altars, dedicated to the Mother of God and the Sacred Heart of Jesus, as well as the statues in the church, were made by the renowned Daprato Statuary Company. On the plaza in front of the presbytery there is a modest monument erected to commemorate the parishioners who died in the wars.

Chronology

1882 - erection of the parish oof SS. Cyril and Methodius

1882-1887 - Father Leopold Moczygemba is the parish priest

1884 - consecration of church and school buildings

1928 - fire and destruction of the church and presbytery

1930 - dedication of the new church

1942 - installation of stained-glass windows inside the church

1958-1960 - construction of a new school building

1992 - the Felician Sisters, teaching at school, leave the community

Text originally published in a book issued by the POLONIKA Institute.
Katarzyna Chrudzimska-Uhera, Anna Sylwia Czyż, Jacek Gołębiowski, Bartłomiej Gutowski, Polish parishes and churches in Chicago, Warszawa 2019, pp. 129-137.