St. Hedwig Parish — the Mother Polish Parish

Organized 1 January 1877 under the Rev. Valentine Czyzewski, C.S.C., first dedicated to St. Joseph — present church at Scott and Napier, 331 South Scott Street — consolidated with St. Patrick, 22 August 2024

From St. Patrick’s to a parish of their own: Polish people had been arriving in South Bend since 1869, and until 1877 they formed part of St. Patrick’s congregation, worshipping in the old St. Patrick’s church on West Division Street and attended by visiting Polish priests from Chicago and from Otis, then called Salem Crossing. By the time of organization they numbered 125 families. On 1 January 1877 the Rev. Valentine Czyzewski, C.S.C., took charge of the congregation, residing at St. Patrick’s residence. Czyzewski’s own biography is treated in the people record for this Religion file; here he enters as the parish’s organizer and pastor from 1877 until his death in 1913.

First church, as St. Joseph’s: The first church, on Monroe Street between Scott and Chapin, was begun in the fall of 1876 and finished and blessed on 1 July 1877; Alerding’s diocesan history describes a frame structure 83 by 40 feet and 24 feet high, costing 3,500 dollars. Joseph Swastek’s history of the Poles in South Bend records that the new church and its adjoining wooden schoolhouse were dedicated on 1 July 1877 to the patronage of St. Joseph, and that the congregation and school at first carried the St. Joseph name. In November 1879 a windstorm destroyed the church completely; the congregation worshipped again at St. Patrick’s while rebuilding, in Swastek’s account in the patched-up schoolhouse. The Scott Street property for the present church was bought for 2,325 dollars on 18 January 1880.

Present church — two dedication days stand: The present church was begun on 12 August 1881 at Scott and Napier. Alerding’s diocesan history dates its dedication to 15 April 1883. The parish’s Diamond Jubilee history of 1952 and Notre Dame’s Building South Bend record both date the dedication, by Bishop Joseph Dwenger, to 8 April 1883. Both days stand in the record, in 1883. With the new church the congregation took the name St. Hedwig. The building is Romanesque, 149 feet long and 62 feet wide, its main walls 33 feet high and its steeple 156 feet; it seated 920 and cost, with pews, 33,000 dollars. Fine altars followed in 1891, donated by the parish societies, and in 1898 the interior was remodeled for 7,300 dollars, with pillars set to support the roof, steel arched ceilings and new pews. Today’s Catholic calls the 1883 church the oldest church building in South Bend. The frame parochial residence was bought for 3,000 dollars and moved to the site in 1884.

Growth: Blanchard counted the congregation at 125 families in 1877 and at least 850 families by 1898. Alerding, writing for the diocese in 1907, counted about 828 families, some 4,000 souls, with a long roll of parish societies — St. Stanislaus Kostka’s, St. Casimir’s, St. Hedwig’s, St. Vincent de Paul’s, St. Valentine’s, St. Adalbert’s, St. Florian’s and others. From St. Hedwig, Czyzewski bought the lots for and organized St. Casimir’s in 1896 and did the same for St. Stanislaus in 1898, and built churches at Terre Coupee and Rolling Prairie.

School — the fire dates stand: Alerding records a first brick school of eight rooms built in 1884, then the largest school building in the city, destroyed by fire on 4 February 1886, and replaced the same year by a three-story school 126 by 62 feet costing 28,000 dollars, with twelve schoolrooms and an attendance of 735 children taught by Sisters of the Holy Cross and lay teachers. Blanchard gives 860 pupils in the brick school, taught by three Brothers and five Sisters of the Holy Cross. Swastek’s account differs on the fire: he places the school’s destruction by fire in 1896 and a new structure in 1898, and gives the enrollment at the close of the 1899 term as 1,025 pupils, the largest enrollment of any school in South Bend. The elementary school remained open until 1967. St. Hedwig High School opened in 1928, was renamed South Bend Catholic High School in 1936, and in 1953 became part of the new Saint Joseph High School.

Present state: St. Hedwig and St. Patrick stood under one pastoral staff from 2001, the Rev. Leonard Chrobot holding both, followed by shared pastors thereafter; the parishes’ own secretary described a Polish parish keeping its hymns, its Easter food blessing and its festival foods, with Masses divided between the two churches a block apart. Bishop Rhoades’s decree of 22 August 2024 consolidated the two parishes into the single St. Patrick–St. Hedwig Parish; St. Hedwig Church keeps its name and its Masses in the combined parish, a ministry of the Dominican Province of St. Albert the Great, with the parish office at St. Patrick and the rectory at 331 South Scott Street.

Sources:

1. H. J. Alerding, The Diocese of Fort Wayne, 1857–1907, St. Hedwig history, as transcribed for the St. Joseph County genealogical pages — Polish arrivals from 1869 in St. Patrick’s congregation, Czyzewski’s charge from 1 January 1877, the Monroe Street church blessed 1 July 1877 and destroyed in 1879, the Scott Street purchase of 18 January 1880, the present church begun 12 August 1881 and dedicated 15 April 1883 with its dimensions and cost, the 1884 brick school, its fire of 4 February 1886 and the 1886 replacement, and Czyzewski’s organization of St. Casimir’s in 1896 and St. Stanislaus in 1898.
2. Charles Blanchard, ed., History of the Catholic Church in Indiana, vol. I (1898) — Polish worship at St. Patrick’s until 1877, the frame church demolished by windstorm in 1879, completion of the present church in 1883, growth from 125 families to at least 850, and the school of 860 pupils as the largest in the city.
3. Rev. Joseph Swastek, “The Poles in South Bend to 1914,” from his 1941 Notre Dame dissertation — the church and school dedicated 1 July 1877 to the patronage of St. Joseph, the November 1879 whirlwind, worship in the schoolhouse until the Scott and Napier church of 1883 renamed St. Hedwig’s, the school fire placed in 1896 with a new structure in 1898, and 1,025 pupils in 1899 as the largest enrollment in South Bend.
4. St. Hedwig Parish, Diamond Jubilee 1877–1952 milestones, and University of Notre Dame, Building South Bend, St. Hedwig Parish Church — the dedication by Bishop Dwenger dated 8 April 1883.
5. Today’s Catholic, “In My Diocese: St. Hedwig’s rich Polish tradition,” 30 May 2017 — mother parish of the Polish community, founded under Holy Cross, first pastor Czyzewski until 1913, the elementary school to 1967, the high school of 1928 and its succession to Saint Joseph High School in 1953, the 1883 church as the oldest church building in South Bend, and the shared staff with St. Patrick from 2001.
6. Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades, Singular Decree of consolidation, given 22 August 2024, printed in Today’s Catholic, 8 September 2024; St. Patrick–St. Hedwig Parish bulletins, 2026 — the single combined parish with two historic churches.