St. Hedwig's (Milwaukee)

St. Hedwig's Roman Catholic Church, (Kościół Świętej Jadwigi in Polish ) is a Roman Catholic parish located at 1702 N. Humboldt Ave. on Milwaukee, Wisconsin's East Side at the center of the East Brady Street Historic District, in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

This church is dedicated to St. Hedwig (Jadwiga of Poland), queen and saint of Poland.

Polish immigrants congregated not only on Milwaukee’s south side, but also on its east side. Most of the settlers had come from Prussia and suffered through Otto Von Bismarck’s repressive Kulturkampf. The area was known as the "Kepa", or "camp", because it had once had a military camp. In the beginning Polish residents from Milwaukee’s east side who wished to attend Mass in their native language made a long and arduous journey on foot to St. Stanislaus. Those who were not up to this task attended St. Mary’s on Broadway or St. John Nepomuc, a Bohemian church.

The Poles on Milwaukee's east side were energized by the construction of St. Stanislaus church on the south side, and 40 families met in 1871 to organize their own parish closer to home. A wooden church was erected on the corner of Brady and Humboldt and dedicated to St. Hedwig, who had been a queen of Poland.

In 1885, a major riot broke out in the church over the choice of an organist. Riots ensued and the police were called in to bring order. The priest resigned and the parish was closed by the Archdiocese for three months. A new pastor, Father Clement Rogozinski was appointed and his first Mass was said on December 11, 1885. Father Rogozinski had been born in Poland in 1835 and had been ordained in Łowicz in 1861, just as another national uprising was taking place against the Tsar. The provisional Polish government had chosen Rogozinski to administer the oath of allegiance to the rebels. After the uprising failed, Rogozinski tried to escape to Galicia, but was detained by the Russian police and imprisoned in Olomuniec for 11 months. After his release, he journeyed to America, finally settling in Milwaukee. Father Rogozinski, who was revered by the local Polish community for his patriotic efforts, brought a calming presence to the parish, and the wounds were healed.

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Wikipedia