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| St. Stanislaus Church | |
|---|---|
 St. Stanislaus Catholic Oratory | |
  St. Stanislaus Church | |
| 43°00′45″N87°55′02″W / 43.01250°N 87.91722°W /43.01250; -87.91722 | |
| Location | Milwaukee |
| Country | United States |
| Denomination | Roman Catholic |
| Website | St. Stanislaus Oratory |
| History | |
| Founded | 1866 (1866) |
| Founder | Polish immigrants |
| Dedication | St. Stanislaus |
| Architecture | |
| Functional status | Active |
| Heritage designation | For Polish immigrants |
| Architect | Leonard Schmidtner (Kowalski) |
| Architectural type | Church |
| Style | Polish Cathedral |
| Groundbreaking | 1866 (1866) |
| Completed | 1873 (1873) |
| Specifications | |
| Materials | Brick |
St. Stanislaus Roman Catholic Oratory (Polish:Kościół Świętego Stanisława) is aRoman Catholic parish in the historicMitchell Street District ofMilwaukee,Wisconsin. It was designed by Polish noblemanLeonard Kowalski, one of Milwaukee's early Polish residents, who took the nameLeonard Schmidtner and spoke German.
One of Milwaukee's 'Polish Cathedrals', the parish was founded in 1866 by immigrantPoles in theArchdiocese of Milwaukee.[1] St. Stanislaus parish was the third Roman CatholicPolish church in the United States and the first based in an urban area.
Members started with an old frame building which was purchased in 1866 from nearbySt. Stephen Lutheran Church for a sum of $4,500. The twin towered building seen today was completed in 1873 with a parochial school to follow in 1889.
Today, the church is the home of the Milwaukee Latin Mass community. The church was erected as an oratory of theInstitute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, an order of priests dedicated to the celebration of theTraditional Latin Mass.
The church has been fully restored inside and out in recent years. Renovations include restored sanctuary and sacred art, recreatedstained glass windows, new copper roofing; among other functional and aesthetic improvements and restorative work.
St. Stanislaus Catholic Church was dedicated toStanislaus of Szczepanów, Polish martyr and saint of theRoman Catholic Church.
A shift of economy in the 1880s from commerce to industry brought about a rapid influx ofEastern European Catholics to the region. St. Stanislaus and the surrounding neighborhood quickly grew to become the center of Polish life in Milwaukee. Mitchell Street was often referred to as the "Polish Grand Avenue," reflecting its importance and distinction from theGerman dominatedGrand Avenue (now Wisconsin Avenue), a popular downtown merchant street. From 1876 to 1883, the parish was served by PastorHyacinth (Jacek) Gulski
On May 1, 1886 about 2,000 Polish workers gathered at St. Stanislaus to organize and protest the 10-hour work day. Factories closed down as they marched through the city adding to their numbers, until sixteen thousand strong. TheBay View Tragedy later followed when StateMilitia confronted protesters who had camped out at therolling mill inBay View.
The church started a number of other Polish-speaking congregations in theEast Side andJones Island neighborhoods. By 1903, Milwaukee held the largest number of Catholics found in any city, and helped to establish a presence in other growing industrial towns that were part of theArchdiocese of Milwaukee.
January 14, 1914 was the focal point of the celebration of FatherEdward Kozlowski being named asMilwaukee's first Polish bishop. He was only the second Polish-speaking Bishop in America, following the appointment of BishopPaul Peter Rhode inChicago in 1908. A parade was organized fromSt. John's Cathedral, where Father Kozlowski had been consecrated, to Saint Stanislaus in acarriage pulled by four horses. Passing alongMilwaukee's streets, which had been lit with torches, an estimated 50,000 gathered at the church to witness Bishop Kozlowski's assumption of the bishop'smitre. Crowds gathered once again at the church a year later after Bishop Kozlowski fell ill fromblood poisoning and died on August 7, 1915; 30,000 mourners attended the funeral. Bishop Paul Rhode famously declared at the memorial service: "How difficult it was for us to obtain a second Polish bishop, and how easy to lose him."
In 1926 the school was expanded and given a new facade. The original copper sheet domes of the church were replaced with 23carat gold leaf in 1966, and all of the stained glass windows were removed. A mural featuring the iconicOur Lady of Czestochowa was also added to the Mitchell Street side.
As the city'sPolish-American population slowly followed theurban sprawl that began in the 1950s, they were replaced by other ethnic groups. St. Stanislaus continues to serve the local community, now mostlyHispanic, by offering bilingual confession and Sunday services in Spanish.
In May 2007, St. Stanislaus became the home of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee'sLatin Mass community, offering the Extraordinary Form (the 1962 missal of John XXIII) weekly on Sundays, at 10:00 AM. While Mass in Spanish was relocated to neighboring St. Anthony's Church, St. Stanislaus continues to offer the "missa ordinaria" (the 1970 missal of Paul VI) in English each Saturday evening, at 4:00 PM.
In 2008, the church was erected an Oratory of theInstitute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, an order of priests dedicated to the celebration of theTraditional Latin Mass. Canon Olivier Meney of the Institute was appointed the rector of the oratory.
