March 18th, 2007
By PHC member Janice Czyscon

On Sunday, March 18, at Queen of Peace Church in Madison, PHC members viewed A Legacy of Faith: The Story of St. Josaphat's Basilica, a video produced in 1991 by Kevin Pulz, the brother of PHC Vice-President Basia Pulz.

Prior to watching the video Kevin provided the audience with background information, including what led up to the building of St. Josaphat's and facts about the basilica's namesake. Born in 1580 in Volodymyr, a village of the Lithuanian Province of Volhynia, then a part of the Polish Kingdom begun under the Jagiellonian Dunasty, John Kuncevic entered a monastery at about age 234 and took the name Josaphat. He eventually became the Bishop of Plock on the Duna River in northeaster Poland (presently part of Russia) and was made an archbishop. He invested great effort into reunifying the Catholic Church in Rome and Constantinople and suffered martyrdom in 1623 as a result of this effort.

The award-winning video documents the history of the basilica, an architectural jewel patterned after St. Peter's in Rome and located on Milwaukee's south side. The story begins in 1888 with the founding of the fifth Polish parish on the near south side of Milwaukee - St. Josaphat's. Teh first church burned, and the second church soon became too small for the 12,000 parishoners of 1896. Father William Grutza, St. Josaphat's pastor, took a trip to Chicago to purchase bricks for the new church and returned with an agreement to purchase the U.S. Post Office and Customs House in Chicago, a building on the city's short-term demolition list. Although only 17 years-old, the building was falling apart due to poor construction. Father Grutza purchased the 200,000 tons of salvage building materials, valued at $7 million, for $20,000 and arranged to have them shipped on 500 railroad flatcars from Chicago to Milwaukee.

Father Grutza commissioned architect Erhard Brielmaier to design plans for the new church. The rest of the story is a tale of the sacrifice and toil of the parishioners who put together the pieces to create a classical Romanesque basilica with the fifth largest dome in the world at the time. Every piece of the dismantled Chicago building was used.

Before construction could begin, a hill standing 30-feet high at its peak needed to be leveled down to the surrounding area. The women of the parish hauled soil in their aprons to a new location along the western shore of the Kinnickinnic River to help the effort. Everyone contributed what they could. The video includes interviews with proud parishioners of 1991 whose grandparents helped build the magnificent structure that rivals the European cathedrals. It also features photographs from the era and interviews with Milwaukee historians. After five years, construction was completed, and in July 1901 about 4,000 people attended the dedication ceremony of St. Josaphat's, which seats 2,400 people.

The basilica's stained glass windows were imported from Austria. One window particularly significant to Polish Catholics is the raising of Piotrowin from the dead by St. Stanislaus. When it was completed, the interior was pure whitewashed plaster. There were no paintings in the church until 1904 when the "Martyrdom of St. Josaphat" by Professor J.S. Zukotynski of Chicago was placed directly behind and above the main altar. No other work was done until 1926, after the church debt of a half of a million dollars was liquidated.

In 1928 artists Conrad Schmitt and Gonippo Raggi completed the interior, covering every square inch with murals, mosaics, and gold. In 1929 Pope Pius XII designated St. Josaphat's a basilica - one of three in the United States at that time. In 1992, a $3 million restoration/renovation project was launched and completed in 1997.

Today the beautiful basilica is an active parish and a place of pilgrimage and special devotion. Tours of the basilica are conducted every Sunday after the 10:00am mass.

The Basilica has an extensive website with a detailed history, including several paragraphs about the art in the basilica and a photo gallery and virtual tour. Also see this website: Polish Churches of Milwaukee.