|
In June, 1873, Rev. Theodor
Gieryk wrote open letters in Polish language newspapers encouraging Poles in
America to unite in a national organization to protect Polish immigrants
from discrimination and to preserve their cultural heritage and identity.
This idea was warmly received by Jan Barzynski, editor of the “Pilgrzym”
Polish newspaper in Washington, Missouri - one of the oldest Polish language
newspapers in America. Mr. Barzynski enthusiastically promoted Fr. Gieryk’s
idea. Thus, on October 3, 1873, Fr. Theodor Gieryk, Jan Barzynski, Peter
Kiolbasa, John Glosowski, Rev. Vincent Barzynski, C.R. (Jan Barzynski’s
brother), Fr. Leopold Moczygemba, Fr. Joseph Dabrowski and others met at St.
Albertus Parish in Detroit, Michigan. This meeting brought about the
establishment of the PRCUA, a fraternal organization for Polish Americans of
the Roman Catholic faith, whose motto was established as “For God and
Country”.
The first goals of the
organization were:
 |
to build Polish churches and
schools, |
 |
to promote adherence to the Roman
Catholic religion, and the religious and cultural traditions of the
Polish nation, |
 |
to give fraternal assistance to
Poles, |
 |
to take care of widows and orphans, |
 |
to help Poland to become an
independent country again, |
 |
to establish “Pilgrim” as the
official organ of the organization. |
From the beginning,
information about the PRCUA was disseminated in the “Pilgrzym”. However, in
1886 the “Gazeta Katolicka” became the official publication of the PRCUA. In
1888, the name of the weekly PRCUA newspaper was changed to “Wiara i
Ojczyzna.” The latter two newspapers were published in Chicago. At the 1896
PRCUA National Convention held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the delegates
decided that the organ of the organization would be called “Narod Polski”
which has remained the official publication of the PRCUA to this day. The
first issue of the Narod Polski appeared in January of 1897.
The newspaper was published
weekly until 1946 when it changed to the current semi-monthly schedule.
Between 1921 and 1939 the PRCUA also published a daily newspaper called
“Dziennik Zjednoczenia” which was printed in a print shop at the home office
in Chicago in the area of the current Social Hall. Narod Polski was
published entirely in the Polish language and covered local and worldwide
news of interest to the Polish American community, as well as fraternal
news. In the 1970s the newspaper’s format was gradually changed from mostly
Polish to half English, half Polish. Currently the Narod Polski has a
circulation of approximately 27,000 and is mailed to members nationwide.
Father Leopold Gieryk
(1837-1878), one of the founders of the Polish Roman Catholic Union of
America, was a remarkable man. He served as the PRCUA’s first President from
1873-75. Born in 1837, in the Prussian section of partitioned Poland near
Marienwerder, he served as a chaplain in the Prussian army. In 1872, Father
Gieryk immigrated to the U.S.A. along with many Poles who were refugees of
Otto Von Bismarck’s Kulturkampf. Years of repression and religious
persecution instilled in these émigrés a strong sense of nationalism and
they were determined to maintain their ethnic identity in America. These
strong ties to their native language and customs targeted the Poles for
discrimination, particularly during the economic depression of 1873 which
had devastating effects on the poor immigrants.
Ethnic parishes helped
their members to a certain degree by serving as buffers between the Old
World immigrants and the new American society, with all its strange customs
and beliefs, within which the Poles had to function. Although many groups
tried to address the problems at the local level, with the large wave of
Polish immigrants who settled in many different regions of the United States
in the late 1800s, it became apparent that a national organization was
needed. Fr. Gieryk was among the earliest advocates of such a national
organization.
In 1873, Father Gieryk
became pastor of St. Albertus parish in Detroit, Michigan, which was founded
just three years earlier. Much of Father Gieryk’s time was spent arranging
for the initial building of the church, collecting funds for building and
administering to the needs of the Polish immigrants who comprised his
parishioners. He was moved by the generosity of his parishioners, despite
their meager means. Fr. Gieryk was driven by the desire to do something to
help his parishioners protect themselves against discrimination in this
“land of the free and home of the brave.” He also wanted to encourage them
to preserve their native language and customs, despite the inevitable
assimilation into American society.
Beginning in June of 1873,
Fr. Gieryk wrote open letters to all the Polish language newspapers in the
United states, urging the leaders of various Polish American communities to
ban together into a national organization for their mutual benefit. One of
Fr. Gieryk’s strongest supporters was Jan Barzynski, editor of the
“Pilgrzym” Polish language newspaper published in Washington, Missouri. He
published a series of Father Gieryk’s letters in his newspaper, and gave his
idea much media coverage.
As a result of these
articles, Father Gieryk called for at meeting at his parish in Detroit,
Michigan on October 3, 1873. In attendance at this meeting were many of the
religious and civic leaders of the Polish American community, including:
Rev. Leopold Moczygemba, founder of the Polish immigrant settlement in Panna
Maria, Texas, in 1854 and the oldest Polish Church in America - the
settlement’s Immaculate Conception Parish, as well as Superior of the
Conventual Franciscan Missionaries in Texas from 1856-58 and First
Commissary General of the Conventual Franciscans (1858-1866). This meeting led to the establishment of the
PRCUA.
The following year, the
first national Convention of the PRCUA was held in Chicago and
father Gieryk was elected national president. At this convention, the group
issued a statement of its purposes which included preserving the Catholic
faith and national spirit of Polish Americans and passing on these values to
future generations. Participants also voted on establishing a bank,
hospital, local libraries, teachers’ seminary and other institutions of
higher education for Polish Americans.
Father Gieryk stressed the
need to maintain the group’s Catholic identity and this special apostolate
to Polish immigrants was placed under the patronage of the Sacred Heart of
Jesus. The religious tone of the organization lent special support to Polish
clergy who often had to struggle to maintain their ethnic parishes, which
were opposed by some of the church hierarchy. This was viewed by Fr. Gieryk
as a threat which could lead to the total assimilation of Polish priests
into the American way of life.
The Convention made Father
Gieryk come away from the meeting with a great sense of support by the
participants. He was so optimistic and hopeful for the organization, that he
left his pastorship to devote himself fulltime to the very time-consuming
affairs of establishing this national organization in accordance with the
wishes of the delegates at the First Convention.
There were other segments
of the Polish American community who did not want the clergy to be part of
this fraternal organization and who did not want the Roman Catholic religion
to play such an important part in the organization’s foundation. These
groups broke away from the original group to found other non-religious
Polish American fraternal organizations, such as the Polish National
Alliance.
Father Gieryk had taken
upon his shoulders a formidable task. Not only was he battling the church
hierarchy in Detroit and the various factions which wanted the organization
to go in a different direction from that proposed by Father Gieryk, but he
was also troubled by poor health which was rapidly deteriorating.
(Something happened that
the Resurrectionists came into power in the organization was Fr. Gieryk was
“excluded from further leadership roles in the PRCUA.”) In an attempt to
lead a more peaceful, less stressful life, Father Gieryk decided to move to
the newly-forming rural town of Radom, Illinois, where he hoped to continue
his ministry and regain his health.
At that time, Civil War
hero General John Turczyn was recruiting Polish immigrants for the Illinois
Central Railroad to settle in southern Illinois. He arrived there in April
of 1875, when St. Michael’s Parish had just marled its first anniversary.
There was no rectory and Radom fell far short of the “paradise” promised in
Illinois Central advertisements. So Father Gieryk, St. Michael’s first
resident pastor, moved into the near-by barracks of the railroad workers.
Once again, Father Gieryk
became deeply concerned about the spiritual and material welfare of his
people. He learned that the people were buying land and farming it, but they
didn’t hold the deeds. Father Gieryk started asking people where their deeds
were and told them they should have the titles for their land. When the land
agent heard about all of this, he called the people together and vehemently
assured them of his honesty. The agent then told the people that their new
pastor was a troublemaker and they should get rid of him if they new what
was good for them. Thus, In April of 1876, Father Gieryk was asked to leave
Radom.
Father Gieryk served in
Berlin, Wisconsin, for a short time, then he returned to southern Illinois.
He was offered a parcel of land by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad to
establish a church about 14 miles northeast of Radom. Thus he moved to this
farm in Jefferson County and served German Catholics living in the vicinity.
He never built a church, though. In late September, he became critically
ill.
Father Dezyderjusz Liss,
OSF, brought him the Sacraments and on his deathbed Father Gieryk forgave
the people of Radom for any hurt they caused him, according to the Radom
parish history published in 1924 on the occasion of the dedication of the
present church. Father Theodor Gieryk died on November 3, 1878, at the age
of 41 years. His grave was marked by a small tombstone placed by his
housekeeper, Matilda Stryzyzewska.
On May 31, 1937, hundreds
of PRCUA members gathered at Radom to honor our co-founder at the unveiling
of a 14-foot high granite cross which the PRCUA erected at Fr. Gieryk’s
gravesite.
At the gravesite, the then
PRCUA Vice Chaplain Fr. Paul Janeczko praised Father Gieryk’s zeal and
understanding for the temporal concerns of his people. “With all of his
heart, Fr. Gieryk sought the good fortune and progress of the Polish people.
He looked to the future. Therefore his works have such a profound meaning
for all Polish people in America.” Fr. Janeczko said.
The impact of Fr. Gieryk’s
ministry was further recognized in 1970 when the pioneer priest’s remains
were exhumed and transferred to the Honor Section of the cemetery located in
Doylestown, Pennsylvania, at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa.
Rev. Vincent Barzynski -
introduced an insurance system in 1886.
Rev. Leopold Moczygemba,
President from 1875-80 (1824-1891) - was born in 1824 in Wieka Pluznica,
Poland, in the Opole Region of Poland that was under Prussian rule at that
time. He was ordained a priest in the Order of Friars Minor Conventual at
Pesaro, Italy, in 1847. He continued his higher education in Germany after
ordination. In 1852, Bishop J. M. Odin, the First Bishop of Texas, visited
the Franciscan Monastery in Bavaria, Germany, to recruit missionaries. Among
the five friars who accepted this missionary call to America was Father
Leopold Moczygemba, age 27. The pioneer band of missionaries arrived at the
Port of Galveston, Texas, in the early summer of 1852. They were entrusted
with 4 parishes and 12 missions serving German Catholics.
Fr. Moczygemba wrote
glowing reports to his family in Poland about the numerous new opportunities
of America - freedom and abundance of everything which was denied them in
Europe. Silesia at that time was a region of great poverty, rising food
prices, rampant cholera and typhus epidemics and an oppressed people under
the yoke of the Prussian rulers who longed for freedom. He encouraged his
family to come to America. As a result, more than 100 families from Upper
Silesia sold their possessions and boarded a vessel headed for Galveston,
Texas. Altogether, there were about 800 men, women and children who decided
to take the priest’s advice. They brought with them plows, farm implements,
bedding, kitchen utensils and even a large cross from their old parish
church. Their voyage lasted 9 weeks. They landed at the port of Galveston,
Texas, on December 3. They then proceeded down the coast to Indianola, a
smaller port and journeyed another three weeks on foot and on carts to San
Antonio, arriving there on December 21. Fr. Moczygemba met the party there
and he led them 55 miles southeast to the junction of the San Antonio River
and the Cibolo Creek, to a place chosen by Father Moczygemba as their future
settlement - the new village of Panna Maria, Texas. The immigrant group
arrived at a site on December 24, 1854. Under the historic oak tree, Fr.
Leopold offered Mass with the settlers and thus established the oldest
Polish settlement in the United States.
At first the peasants lived
in dugouts, in grass huts or under the spreading oak trees. In time they
build more substantial wooden and stone buildings. A year later, in early
December 1855, bad weather set in. It started with a series of cold, wet
periods which lasted until March of 1856, then it was followed by 14 months
of the most severe droughts Texas ever suffered in its entire history. All
the vegetation disappeared altogether, crops and livestock were lost and the
Silesians had to use their life savings in order to stay alive. Had it not
been for the wild game in the area, many would have died of starvation. Many
families left the area to go to American cities and seek work. The drought
not only destroyed the economic prospects for the immigrants, but it also
destroyed their faith in their spiritual leader.
Just as the Israelites
murmured against Moses after he led them out of Egypt, so too the settlers
had become openly hostile to the spiritual leader who had urged them to come
to such a desolate wilderness. Family legend says at one point Fr. Leopold’s
brother, Joseph, wanted to return to Poland. The missionary reportedly threw
Joseph’s passport into the fire to prevent a breakaway from the colony. His
brothers Joseph, John, Anton and August, and several cousins, remained in
Texas while his parents and brother, Franciszek cancelled their plans to
come to America. Another story relates how the colonists broke out in open
hostility against the priest who brought them there. One group wanted to
hang him and the other group wanted to drown him in what little water
remained in the San Antonio River.
Father Moczygemba had just
completed the building of Immaculate Conception Church in Panna Maria which
became the oldest Polish Church in America. In 1856, the cross brought from
Poland by the settlers was erected before the main door of the new church
and blessed by its pastor, Fr. Moczygemba.
Fr. Moczygemba, now
32-years-old, was pulled in many directions. On the one hand he felt
responsible for the settlers and their welfare, but they needed food and all
he could offer were prayers. On the other hand their discontentment with him
was something that could not be ignored. As a later pastor among them
summoned up the situation succinctly: “They complained and cursed the priest
so strongly that he had to escape.” He repeatedly wrote to Rome requesting a
Polish priest to take charge of the settlement. In October 1856, right after
the dedication of the church, Fr. Moczygemba left Panna Maria and went to
Castroville. He remained there until 1857 when he left Texas only to return
for brief visits in later years.
In 1856 he was appointed as
Superior of the Conventual Franciscan Missionaries in Texas, a position
which lasted for 2 years. In 1858, Fr. Moczygemba became the First
Commissary General of the Conventual Franciscans, a position which he held
until 1866. In 1858 he left for Europe on the first of several such trips he
would make in his lifetime. He went to Rome and also visited his family in
Silesia and raised funds for the missions in America. He recruited several
priests to return to America with him and in November of 1858 they arrived
in New York. Fr. Moczygemba received a letter from the Bishop of Albany
which proposed the possibility of having the friars work among the German
immigrants in his diocese. Fr. Leopold agreed and in March of 1859, the
bishop transferred two urban parishes to the friars. Fr. Leopold founded the
first motherhouse of the Order in the U.S.A. in Syracuse, New York, and
parishes in Utica and Syracuse for the large German-speaking immigrant
population.
In the meantime, funds
solicited by Fr. Moczygemba in Europe began reaching the missions in Texas
and Father Francis Gatti was appointed as superior of the Texas missions,
where he and another priest were sent to minister to the needs of the
Silesians.
In 1860 Fr. Moczygemba sent priests to Louisville, Kentucky, where they
established St. Peter’s Parish. Two years their order received charge of the
nearby St. Anthony’s Parish in Jeffersonville, Indiana. During the Civil
War, he was concerned with wartime inflation and keeping his seminarians
from being conscripted into the Army, so much of his time was spend
fundraising.
In the winter of 1863-64,
Peter Kiolbassa, a handsome 27-year-old Union Army officer came to Chicago
to spend his furlough. Shortly after his arrival, Kiolbassa involved himself
in the Polish community’s affairs to establish a Polish parish. During his
Chicago furlough, Kiolbassa contacted his close friend, Rev. Leopold
Moczygemba and suggested that the priest come to Chicago. Peter Kiolbassa
arranged to have Fr. Moczygemba make his first trip to Chicago to hear the
Easter confessions of 30 German families at St. Boniface Church and the
Polish community, where a chronicler noted that “the Polish community
received Father Leopold with vivid joy and elevated spirits.” He was the
first Polish priest to minister in Chicago. He made contacts in the city
which became helpful in later years. His contact with Peter Kiolbassa would
lead to Fr. Moczygemba’s involvement with the founding of the Polish Roman
Catholic Union of America.
From 1868-70 Fr. Moczygemba
served in Rome. In 1870 he traveled back to America and took charge of St.
Mary’s Church in Litchfield, Illinois. There his top priority was to
establish a Catholic school for German immigrant families who moved into the
area to work on the railroad. He moved out of the rectory and transformed it
into a combination school and convent for the Ursuline Sisters from Alton,
Illinois.
Fr. Moczygemba hoped to be
appointed Bishop of Montana but his appointment was frustrated by the local
bishop who would not support his election. He moved to St. Joseph’s parish
in Terre Haute, Indiana for a year and then to St. Anthony’s Parish in
Jeffersonville, Indiana in 1875, where he stayed for 2 years.
During the 1870s, Fr.
Moczygemba devoted more and more of his time to activities with members of
the Polish community in America, which he continued until the time of his
death. He had been present at the founding meeting of the PRCUA in Detroit,
and some accounts even declare that he served as Chairman of this meeting.
In 1875, at the third PRCUA convention. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Fr.
Moczygemba was elected as President of the PRCUA. He was friends with Rev.
Joseph Dabrowski who discussed with him the idea of founding a Polish
teacher’s college and seminary for training young men for the priesthood.
Fr. Moczygemba wrote to the
superior of the Congregation of the Resurrection, a nationalistic Polish
religious order, reporting to him that due to an increasing immigration of
Poles to America there was a great need for more members of his order in the
US. Under Fr. Moczygemba’s leadership, the PRCUA sponsored the settlement of
Polish immigrants in central Nebraska on lands being offered for sale by the
Burlington and Missouri Valley railroad. Jan Barzynski was one of the land
agents involved in this settlement. In 1877, about 300 families located in
the area of Sherman and Howard Counties and this area became the proposed
site for the planned seminary that had been discussed.
Side note: In 1876 Father
Moczygemba rescued one of the pioneer Polish Catholic newspapers in the U.S.
“Gazeta Polska Katolicka” by donating to it $2,500 from his own personal
funds.” This newspaper later became the official publication of the PRCUA.
In 1878, Fr. Moczygemba
made his final trip to Europe. He went to Rome to secure Papal endorsement
for his plans to found a college or seminary for the Poles in America and to
transfer from the Friars Minor Conventual with whom he was having personal
problems, to the Polish Congregation of the Resurrection. Father Moczygemba
submitted two undated petitions to Pope Leo XIII, one in Latin and the other
in Italian requesting permission to establish a college/seminary. In Latin
he used the work “collegium” and in Italian the word “seminario”. The Holy
father approved both petitioned on January 14, 1879.
Fr. Moczygemba successfully
transferred to the Congregation of the Resurrection who suggested he be sent
to Chicago to work with the Polish immigrants. In 1880 he returned to
America, arriving in New York and traveling by train to Chicago, where he
spent the next two years at St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish on the near north
side of Chicago. He described his life in Chicago thusly: “Father Wincenty
Barzynski takes care of the parish and I care for the house, brothers and
postulants. We have 4 brothers, 3 Polish and 1 Italian, and 2 postulants,
young Poles, and it seems that they are good boys. I assist in the parish as
much as I can.”
At this same time, problems
arose in Nebraska. The colony was not prospering, and the Resurrectionists
admitted they lacked sufficient financial support for the educational
venture there. Nevertheless, Fr. Moczygemba continued to support the effort,
even buying 380 acres of land for the site of the proposed school with his
own funds. In 1882, he became pastor of St. Alphonsus Church in Lemont,
Illinois, a combined congregation of 175 German families and 350 Polish
families. Although they constituted the minority, the Germans owned the
church building and controlled parochial affairs at the parish. Therefore,
Fr. Leopold set about establishing a completely separate congregation for
the Poles, Ss. Cyril and Methodius Parish, while administering to the
spiritual needs of the Germans as well.
He purchased 20 acres of
land on a hilltop in Lemont and deeded a portion of this to the Diocese of
Chicago for a church building. he sold the remaining acreage to local Poles
as residential lots around the church and called the subdivision Jasna Gora.
He called a meeting of all Poles in the area and assessed each family a
specific sum to be contributed to the church’s building fund. The
cornerstone was laid in August 1883.and the building was sufficiently
complete for the first Mass to be held there in April 1884.
Fr. Leopold was visited by
his nephew, Rev. Leopold Moczygemba, called “Jr.”, who celebrated his first
solemn Mass as a priest there in June of 1884. He was born in San Antonio,
Texas, to Leopold’s brother Anton in 1859. His other brother, Joseph, also
had a son who became Monsignor Thomas J. Moczygemba, who served the
Archdiocese of San Antonio all his life. After a few months, the young
priest returned to Lemont to assist his aging uncle for the remainder of his
tenure in the parish.
In 1884 Fr. Moczygemba
health began to fail and he transferred to Father Joseph Dabrowski the major
role in bringing plans for a seminary to fruition, but he remained
associated with the effort until its completion.
Fr. Dabrowski decided it
would be more advantageous to shift the proposed location for the seminary
from Nebraska to Detroit, Michigan, which was fast becoming a largely Polish
populated area. The Bishop of Detroit gave his formal approval the two
clergymen began fundraising efforts. In August of 1884 Fr. Moczygemba sold
his land in Nebraska and secured $5,800 which he gave as a loan to the
Diocese of Detroit to purchase the land. According to the still-preserved
agreement, he did not expect repayment of the principal, but rather to be
allowed to “live and reside in the aforesaid Polish Seminary” and to receive
interest in the amount of 4% annually as a stipend for his expected
retirement.
Fr. Moczygemba also
contributed substantially from his own funds to establish the seminary. In a
letter he wrote in 1886, Fr. Leopold discussed his efforts in the seminary
venture: “... Here I must add that if it were now for my funds, the Seminary
would never have existed. When I made a good beginning [with donated funds],
the others joined with their work and considerable funds/ Otherwise they
would never have given their support.”
he attended the laying of the cornerstone of Ss. Cyril and Methodius
Seminary in 1885, which also coincided with the millennium of the great
Slavic missionaries (885-1885). The seminary was dedicated in 1886.
Fr. Moczygemba remained in
Lemont until 1887, when he moved to the Polish Seminary. In 1888 he
petitioned for perpetual secularization, which was approved, and spent the
remainder of his life as a secular priest in the Detroit Diocese.
From 1887 through 1889, Fr.
Leopold lived in the Detroit area, teaching at the seminary and serving as
chaplain for the Felician Sisters in Detroit and the Sisters of Charity in
nearby Dearborn. He was unhappy with his treatment in Detroit, feeling that
he was not treated with proper respect. Therefore in July of 1889 he secured
a temporary position as pastor of St. Mary’s Church is Parisville, Michigan,
the oldest Polish settlement in the state. He served there until June of
1890. Then he moved to officiate at St. Stanislaus Church in rural Hilliard,
now Dorr, Michigan, from October 1890 to January 1891. He became very ill
and complained that “the Michigan cold is killing me.” In January 1891, he
was unable to continue his priestly duties at Hilliards, so he returned to
Dearborn where he spent the next few weeks growing weaker and more ill. He
died on February 23, 1891 at the age of 65 years. He was quietly buried in
the priest’s lot at Mount Elliott Cemetery in Detroit and mourned throughout
the Polish American community. In his will be gave the remainder of his
estate to the Diocese of Detroit for the support of the seminary.
Fr. Moczygemba’s mortal
remains lay there for 83 years beneath an undistinguished faded tombstone.
In 1972, the pastor of Panna Maria, Texas, made a pilgrimage to Detroit to
view the gravesite of Fr. Moczygemba. He was shocked to find that not a
single clergyman or layman in the Detroit area could or would lead him to
the site. Upset by this lack of recognition afforded the founder of the
oldest Polish parish in America, the Texas Poles immediately took steps to
transfer his remains to Panna Maria, Texas, in order to give him a final
resting place “among his relatives and friends.” They received all the
necessary permissions and on October 13, 1974, in a concelebrated field Mass
including over a dozen priests, two of them from Father Moczygemba’s home
region in Poland, and including the Archbishop of San Antonio, Father
Leopold Moczygemba’s remains were reinterred in the churchyard at Panna
Maria. The reburial took place beneath the same oak tree under which he had
offered the first Mass with the newly-arrived Polish immigrants on Christmas
Eve in 1854. Two years later an imposing granite gravestone bearing a
life-size bronze bust of Father Moczygemba was placed over the grave, which
is visited by hundreds of people annually. The marker bears in Polish a
quotation from Fr. Leopold: “As a Silesian, I have more Polish feelings than I can
express.” He was honored with the
title “Patriarch of American Polonia.”
|
