St Marys High School - Salute Yearbook (New Baltimore, MI)

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Cu tvnw Iu'pi'mI11cv1l tmlrlesy uf I.:i.Li1-s' llmlle -Ivvlllwml. f'nlu51'iyl1t The Vurlis l'x1i-. 1' I procession of all the parishioners marching thrice around the church. In June, Polish Americans celebrate Corpus Christi with open-air processions to four different altars, at each of which one of the four Gospels is read and Benedietion given. June is also the month of many weddings and colorful open-air picnics. August 15th, the Feast of the Assumption, is popu- larly known as the Feast of Our Lady of the Green- ery because bouquets of flowers are brought to church to he blessed. October and November give many Polish Ameri- cans, especially the Jadwigas, Jan Kantys. Stanislavs. and Jozafats, a chance to celebrate namesdays for namesdays enjoy greater popularity than birthdays. December brings Christmas. On Christmas Eve, all the members of the family share the opwahtek - token of brotherly love and mended friendship. This takes place at the evening feast, the Vilia , after which gifts are exchangedg then all attend the Pa- sterka. 1Midnight Massl. singing the beautiful Ko- lendy. l'.5lll ll Ill! YW'w'.7uf1'rr 1 ' L Ke. 'W 1 s T3- S .NNN

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gg? Q lam!-WI I ix lu--UI tnnlxl' .lx l,.n.n--' llnuuw -l..u1n.xi 11,5-ivxuixl 'iiilx' tiuriis l'vli ti IW? We came not cmpty-handed here but brought :1 rich inheritance, writes an immigrant poet. That these words are no empty boast is perhaps most vivid- ly portraymd by thc colorful pageantry of Polish- Ann-rican customs. In January, on the Feast of the Epiphany, Polish Americans write on doors the initials KYLMJ B and the current year with especially blessed chalk to honor the Three Wise Men - Kasper, Melchior, and Baltazar. March usually introduces Punchki Day and the devotion of Christ's Passion, Bitter Sorrows , with its touching hymns and meditations on the sufferings of Jesus. With April comes Easter. On Holy Saturday. young and old hurry to church with huge baskets of holiday food under their arms. This is the Shvyentsonka or Food-Blessing - the blessing by the priest of victuals for holiday consumption . . . Easter Sunday services begin at dawn with a solemn Pvlonian W ..s,. Q . VW? ,QQ-....M823u We 3 Www W . .,.. e ,' s e v Ng ms, A We xx . is ' Q sa ix vb

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. ' flfuym wwi . . Lit f W' ' w w ' cw Q 0 Onldn it wal , ,V ff. 0 71 yy 1-'r. Moczygemba Fr. Dabrowski Mother Monica P. Kiolbassa A. Schreiber ffm terdaq Not lone meteors but ma,ter- moulders were the Polish-American leaders of yesterday-men and iso- men with a profound sense of so- :-ial responsibility who welded the teeming immigrant masses into a highly productive cultural unit, the POLONIA AMERYKANSKA. Intrepid Fr. Leopold Moczygemba of the Conventual Franciscans brought the first group of Polish settlers to Panna Maria, starting thc great migration of Polish peasants to America. Rev. Joseph Dabrowski, printer. wrlter, spiritual director and found- cr of the first seminary for Pol sh American priests, made perhaps the greatest individual contribution to Polonian cultural development. Mother M. Monica Sybilska, or- ganizer extraordinary, was the guid- ing genius behind the phenomenal growth of the Felician Sisterhood in its first decades in America. The first self-made Polish Amer- ican is perhaps the best designa- tion for Peter Kiolbassa, immigrant, Civil War captain, teacher in Texas, and first political leader in Chic- ago's rising Polonia. Bushy-bearded Anthony Schreiber was a dynamic force in the hey-day of the Polish National Alliance be- fore World War I and founder of the influential DZIENNIK ZWIAZ- KOWY. The first Polish-American Cath- olic bishop and for years the most influential Polonian leader was Bishop Paul Peter Rhode of Chicago and Green Bay, Wis. From immigrant to Illinois state teasurer was the leap made by John Smulski, cutstanding World War I Polonian financier, organizer and lay leader. Energetic, social-minded Stepha- nia Chmielinska was the organizer and first president of the Pol sh Women's Alliance and founder of the weekly GLOS POLEK. Called the Father of the Polish Army in the United States , Dr. Teofil Starzynski, Falcon president. played an important role during World War I as an army organizer. Black-robed Very Rev. Hyacinth Fudzinski laid the foundation for the growth of the Polish Conven- tual Franciscans in America and organized the Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph. Others who deserve at least a brief mention, even though lack of space prevents insertion of their pictures. are: the Resurrection'st Father Vincent Barzynski, the most influential figure in the early re- ligious history of the Chicago Polo- nia: Fr. John Pitass, religious and civic patriarch of Buffalog Fr. Ven- ceslav Kruszka, stormy petrel of the Polish-American clergy, writer, his- torian and leading exponent of the Polish version of Cahenslyism: Vla- dislav Dyniewicz, Chicago publisher. whose millions of Polish pamphlets and books reached into every corner of the Polonia: Casimir Zychliriski. father of the Polish Falcons in America and several times presi- dent of the Polish National Al- liance: Stanislav Osada, journalfst, historian, social reformer, and one of the keenest and most intelligent observers of Polish-American de- velopment. All these and still many others wait. for future Polish-American biographers to set down in writing their manifold contributions to the building of the Polonia and Amer- ica. T . 1 . 7mtl'llll1 CSZKUIIILIA fi'- J. U 4. il, . Bishop Rhode T. Starzynski S. Chmielinska. J. Smulsl-:i Fr. Fudzinski