The oldest Polish church in Chicago – the mother church of the Polish parishes in the Midwest – was built in an agricultural settlement started in 1850 (or possibly a year later) by Antoni Smagorzewski-Schermann from Kcynia or Wągrowiec, who was the first Polish immigrant in the Windy City. In 1864, when the village was already inhabited by about 30 families, Smagorzewski-Schermann and Piotr Kiołbassa from Silesia, along with Jan Niemczewski, Jan Arkuszewski and Paweł Kurr, established “Towarzystwo Bratniej Pomocy św. Stanisława Kostki” (The St. Stanislaus Kostka Society of Fraternal Help), under the patronage of the Franciscan priest Fr. Leopold Moczygemba. The purpose of the association was not only charity, but also national-religious activity, including the organization of a Polish parish. The latter was established with the support of the church authorities in 1867, when the number of settlers in Stanisławowo amounted to about 150 families. The first wooden single-tower church was erected in 1869, and a few months later Fr. Józef Juszkiewicz was appointed the first parish priest.

Unfortunately, he did not manage to establish a good relationship with the parishioners, who accused him, among other things, of taking little care of the church and poor ministry. Mutual antagonisms led to a night attack on Father Juszkiewicz and his severe beating. The then Bishop of Chicago Thomas Foley solved the case by dismissing the unpopular priest and handing over the parish to a Resurrectionist missionary, Father Adolf Bakanowski, who was soon supported by Father Jan Wołłowski. After calming down the parish, which in the chronicles was described as ”bursting with violent emotions, frenetic political activity and ardent partisanship”, the church was dedicatedated on June 18, 1871. The ceremony featured an orchestra from the Czech St. Wenceslas Church, and the day ended with a colorful parade along the streets of Chicago.

In 1874 the position of the parish priest was given to Fr. Wincenty Barzyński, who had been a priest and commissioner of the January Uprising, then fled to Paris, joined the Resurrectionist Congregation and in 1866 left for the USA to undertake missions among the Polish community. In 1874 he erected the presbytery and school buildings, where he started a school run by the School Sisters of Notre Dame. In the following year he organized the purchase of land for a new church, because the existing one turned out to be too small for the quickly growing Polish diaspora.

The cornerstone for the new church was consecrated on July 1, 1877. The temple was designed by Patrick Keely, an architect who had immigrated from Ireland. It was planned as a two-story building. Because of the growing number of parishioners, the lower story, although originally intended for a school attended by more than 500 children enrolled at that time, became an auxiliary oratory, where the first service was held on Christmas Eve 1877. The dedication of the upper church took place on July 10, 1881. The façade towers were completed in 1882 (in 1964 one of the belfries was destroyed by a fire caused by a lightning strike, and the shape of the other was distorted by a new tented roof). In the same year, a monumental staircase was built and the space in front of the church was paved. Apart from that, an impressive bronze statue of St. Stanislaus Kostka was purchased, which still decorates the front elevation topped with a metal cross.

The spacious upper church with 1500 seats in oak pews was erected as a three-nave pseudobasilica with a polygonally terminated chancel enclosed with the sacristy and utility rooms. The effect of spatiality is enhanced by slender stucco columns connected by arches and by large, semicircular windows, whose multi-colored stained glass decorations, rich in Christological motifs, were installed in 1903. They were made by Königlich Bayerischen Hofglassmalerei, a Munich-based workshop run by Franz Xaver Zettler, with a branch in New York. Another producer, also represented in the USA, was Tyroler Glasmalerei Anstalt from Innsbruck, whose two stained glass windows are located by the quire. All stained glass windows, made of relatively large panes of handmade glass, are made in the so-called Munich style, characterized by picture-like effects.

The Munich-style stained glass was the inspiration for the work of the famous American artist Tiffany, whose New York studio produced the elegant lamps placed in the church. The altars were made in 1915 or later by the popular Daprato Statuary Company, which produced sacral decorations of polychrome stucco. A unique feature is the bronze statue of Christ on the cross made by the Parisian factory Val d’Osne.

However, the character of the interior is determined primarily by the paintings of Tadeusz Żukotynski, born in Kamieniec Podolski, who was a student of Ksawery Pillati and Jan Matejko, and studied painting at the famous Munich academy of arts. In 1887, a year before moving to Chicago, he executed a cycle of paintings showing scenes from the life of St. Stanislaus Kostka, surrounded with an ornamental frame. The cycle comprises the following scenes: the baptism of the saint, children’s games, fainting and the vision of the angel and St. Barbara, education in Vienna, entrusting the Infant Jesus to St. Stanislaus Kostka, visit to Peter Canisius, escape from the school in Vienna, exchanging clothes with a beggar, receiving a letter of recommendation, acceptance to the Jesuit novitiate in Rome, service in the kitchen and at the table, vision of the saint and his death. They are painted in the main nave of the church.

Tadeusz Żukotyński created the most interesting painting in the chancel (1895, completed in 1899). It can be interpreted in the religious and patriotic context. In the lower part he presented the patron saints of Poland: St. Hedwig of Silesia, St. Stanislaus, St. Casimir, St. John Cantius, St. Andrew Bobola, St. Czesław, St. Hyacinth and St. Bronisława, and above he depicted the epic glory of the resurrected Jesus Christ. The Savior’s triumph is witnessed by hosts of angels, patrons of humanity, saints of the Old and New Testaments, and saints from Slavic countries, including again the patron saints of Poland. Martyrs also pay homage to Christ, including the defenders of the Benedictine convent in Kroże, abolished by the Tsar, who gave their lives to God and their Homeland on November 22, 1893.

Chronology

1867 - erection of the parish of St. Stanislaus Kostka

1869 - construction of the first wooden church

1871 - dedication of the first church

1876 - commencement of work on the erection of a brick church

1877 - consecration of the cornerstone for the new church

1881 - dedication of the new church

1882 - construction of the towers and completion of works on the façade

1903 - installation of stained-glass windows

1904 - purchase of a new main altar

1908 - installation of the electric system

1915 - new firnishings for the lower church (altars and pulpit)

1964 - fire in church towers

2007 - Sanctuary of the Divine Mercy

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. 43-51.