It is a prime example of the so-called '
Polish Cathedral style' of church in both its opulence and grand scale. St. Josaphat's two massive
Romanesque belltowers are a hallmark view of the
Lincoln Park skyline.
History of Saint Josaphat's Parish
The congregation dates back to 1882, when a 13-member committee of Chicago's
Kashubian Polish community formally approached the
Resurrectionist Father
Vincent Barzynski, then Chicago's preeminent Polish priest, for his assistance in establishing a Kashubian parish. Prior to this most of the Kashubian families had been attending Mass at
Saint Michael's Parish, a "German" parish which they preferred to Father Barzynski's own "Polish" parish of
Saint Stanislaus Kostka. The current combination church-school building, an imposing brick edifice, was dedicated on May 22, 1884.[1]
The parish attracted Polish settlement in this area of the
Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago, many of them also of Kashubian descent, as part of what is called the
Kashubian diaspora.[2] In 1902, Saint Josaphat claimed about 5,000 parishioners.[3] This concentration led to the neighborhood being referred to as Kaszubowo by
local Poles.
By 1980, roughly half of Saint Josaphat's 450 families self-identified as
Polish American, with 30% self-identifying as
Mexican American.[1] In the twenty-first century, Saint Josaphat's now serves an overwhelmingly young, white, urban professional congregation in a newly prosperous, gentrified neighborhood. The renovated church, with its traditional Catholic architecture, is popular for weddings, with over 65 a year.