The first Polish emigrants settled in Brantford between 1911 and 1913, with around 30 families arriving then. Another wave of emigrants arrived after World War I in 1919. They were mostly agricultural workers. The largest influx of Polish settlers to Brantford occurred after World War II.

According to the 2001 Canadian census - about 5,000 people living in the Brantford area were of Polish origin.

The church building in Brantford has a rich history, dating back to 1891, when St Andrew's Protestant Church was first built on the site of the current vicarage. The Polish community began to organise much later, as it was not until 1917 that a group of Poles in Brantford sent a petition to Bishop Hamilton requesting permission to establish a Polish parish. On December 5, 1917, Bishop Thomas J. Dowling entrusted Father Wawrzyniec Dogorski with the religious care of the Poles in Brantford. For six months, they were exempted from paying rent for the premises of St Basil's Church. In addition, the parish of St Basil's offered a temporary flat in the rectory to Fr Dogorski.

In 1919, the Poles acquired a site on Lyons Ave. where they built a small wooden, but already their own, church dedicated to St. Joseph and purchased a house for use as a rectory. During the economic crisis of the 1920s, the parishioners were unable to maintain the church and in 1930 the church and rectory were sold and for several years there was no Polish priest in Brantford.

In early December 1936, Father Dr. Tomasz Tarasiuk, pastor of the Polish parish of St. Stanislaus Kostka in Hamilton, sent a letter to the bishop of the diocese requesting that he be entrusted with the religious care of the Poles in Brantford. On December 19, 1936, Joseph Ryan, Bishop of the Diocese of Hamilton, appointed Father Tarasiuk as pastor of the Polish parish in Brantford, entrusting him with the mission of organising it. At that time, the defunct St Andrew's Presbyterian Church building was purchased for the parish and alterations were made to adapt the sanctuary to accommodate the rites of the Roman Catholic Church. In February 1938, a neighbouring property with buildings was purchased and used as a vicarage. The church dated from 1907 and was in need of partial renovation, especially the adaptation of the Protestant interior to the requirements of the Catholic liturgy. These changes were made very quickly and on 27 February 1938 Bishop Ryan consecrated the church as St Joseph's. In June 1951, a new rectory was purchased and the premises of the existing rectory were given to the Felician Sisters working in the parish to be used as a religious house.

Between 1954 and 1955, the parish carried out a major renovation of the interior of St Joseph's Church. The execution of the wall paintings was entrusted to the Polish artist Karol Malczyk, who specialised in sacred painting.

Karol Malczyk (1907-1965) was born in Barwałd Średnia to Franciszek and Franciszka, a peasant family, as their twelfth child. After graduating from primary school and the Martin Wadowita Gymnasium in Wadowice, in 1928 he began studying at the State School of Decorative Arts and Artistic Industry in Kraków. Between 1933 and 1938, he studied sculpture and painting at Kraków's Academy of Fine Arts under Władysław Jarocki and Fryderyk Pautsch. He was associated with the Beskid art group "Czartak II". His first painting work was a polychrome in the Church of St Joseph in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, made together with Adam Siemianowicz. The next, already independent, was a polychrome in the Church of St. Joseph the Worker in Łękawica Kalwaryjska. In this newly painted church, he married Milada Pawlikówna in August 1938. A year later, he drew up a design for the interior decoration and polychrome for the Holy Cross church in Kielce, the execution of which was interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War.

On 17 September 1939, the Malczyks, together with Karol's brother, Father Erazm, crossed the Hungarian border. Here, the Polish artist and his wife produced polychrome work in as many as seven churches. In 1949, the Malczyks, who already had a several-year-old son, decided to emigrate further to Canada, where the artist created polychromes in churches in Rivier Canard, Welland, Windsor (see Holy Trinity Church in Windsor) and Brantford.

At St Joseph's Church they worked for nine months, using a 12-metre scaffold. They left behind a unique polychromy related to Polish history. At the main entrance to the church, a painting on the ceiling depicts Jasna Góra in Częstochowa with an image of Our Lady of Częstochowa. In the central part of the ceiling is an image of destroyed Warsaw during the Warsaw Uprising. The tormented Poland is symbolised by the figure of a kneeling monk praying before the crucified Christ for protection for the Fatherland. The first painting on the right from the entrance depicts St Jadwiga of Anjou, and she was: "the only woman on the Polish throne. Young, beautiful, wise..." - as we can read online on the website of the Archdiocese of Krakow. "She could have had anything her soul desired! She chose the good of her subjects and the country she reigned over. This choice gave Poland stability and prosperity for the next few hundred years. She was the patroness of the poor and the abandoned."

Another painting depicts the legendary Piast, a wheelwright from Kruszwica, who - according to legend - witnessed his blind son Siemowit being healed by mysterious monks. After prayers, Piast's son regained his sight, and after his father's death he took the throne as Mieszko I and embraced Christianity.

On the other side of the church you will see a painting depicting the praying saint Casimir - the Polish prince, son of Casimir IV Jagiellon and Elisabeth Rakuszanka, from 1481 a royal governor in the Crown of the Polish Kingdom, who devoted himself to the sick and the poor. This is followed by a painting depicting St Stanislaus - the bishop and martyr Stanislaus Szczepanowski, who was murdered for criticising the king while celebrating mass at the church on Skałka in Kraków.

The main altar was decorated with a beautiful painting depicting the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary surrounded by a procession of angels, who form a stylised emblem of Poland. It is noteworthy that when painting the faces of the angels, the artist often invited parishioners, residents of Brantford, as models. To the right of the main altar is a painting of the Last Supper.

The work of the Maloney couple was completed in December 1954, and already on January 6, 1955, the consecration of the renovated church took place. Monsignor P. J. Maloney commented on the work of Charles Malczyk and his wife Milady as follows: "St. Joseph's Church, thanks to the work of the Polish artists, has become a shrine not only of God, but by the fact of painting scenes related to the history of the homeland from whence the parishioners came, thoroughly Polish".

In 1957, the church was decorated with new Stations of the Cross by Italian artist Gaetan Valeria.

Inside the church there are also other elements related to Polish history: a plaque commemorating the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Poland, and an image of Our Lady of Czestochowa at the altar.

Location: 235 Brant Avenue, Brantford, Ontario, Canada.