St. Stanislaus Parish (Meriden, Connecticut)

The Mother Church of Meriden is St. Rose of Lima, built in 1848, whose congregation was predominantly Irish. From this parish developed the French parish of St. Laurents in 1880. In 1888, the German members of St. Laurents formed the parish of St. Mary. In 1894, the Italian parish of Our Lady of Mount Carmel also developed from St. Laurents.

Early Polish immigrants were drawn to Meriden by the possibility of jobs in the silver manufacturing industry.[2] People such as Franciszek Szumny and Michał Kloc, who like in the old country, went to Mass every Sunday, attended Saint Rose of Lima, but did not understand the language nor the hymns.

The architects of the present Saint Stanislaus Church were Reiley and Steinback of New York and Stamford, Connecticut. The new church was dedicated by Bishop Michael Tierney of Hartford on September 7, 1908.

Century of Faith Campaign

Front of St. Stan's Church and view of the Jesus statue from Pleasant Street in Meriden

One hundred years later, the church was showing her age and in need of repairs and renovations. Rev. Edward Ziemnicki, the pastor, called for a committee to oversee the project; it was chaired by Alan Lagocki. The kick-off of the 100th anniversary Century of Faith Church Restoration Campaign was held on September 14, 2008, which brought the parish together to renovate the inside of the church. The project was overseen by Kronenberger & Sons Restoration, Inc. of Middletown, Connecticut. Founder of the firm, Thomas J. Kronenberger, was a life-long parishioner of St. Stans. The work had two components: restoration of the interior, and of the outside walkway and staircase. The interior restoration involved repairing plaster, painting, the repair of stained glass windows, the restoration of the column capitals, and parts of the artwork and murals.[5]

In 2009 the church again underwent extensive renovations, including additional marble to restore its historic character.

St. Stans holds an annual Polish Festival on the church grounds.[6] The parish celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2016.[2]

Effective June 29, 2017, St. Stanislaus Church merged with Ss. Peter & Paul in Wallingford to form St. Faustina Parish. Ss. Peter & Paul was founded in 1924 to serve the polish community of Wallingford. Parish records are held with the new parish of St. Faustina, with two church buildings. Parish administration is handled from the St. Stanislaus premises.[7]

In July 2018, St. Faustina's sponsored a trip to Washington D.C.

The main entrance to St. Stan's School

The school was originally housed in the classroom wing of the earlier church on Jefferson Street, and served area youth between 1892 and the construction of the modern school building in 1915. St. Stan's Parochial School enrolled students from Kindergarten through 8th grade. Starting in 1990, the Sisters of St. Joseph taught a pre-school program in the Convent, which existed for well-over a decade.

In 2017 it was announced that St. Joseph's School would be closing at the end of the 2016-2017 school year due to financial challenges, as the school savings and parish support, which it had relied upon for several years to remain open had depleted. Students were encouraged to transfer enrollment to the nearby our Lady of Mount Carmel school.[8]

Badge of the Society of St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr

• The Society of Saint Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr -was instrumental in founding the parish; it later disbanded.
• The Ladies' Rosary Society
• The Holy Name Society
• St. Theresa Society
• The Sunshine Club -Seniors' group that meets during the week in the school's cafeteria
• The Ladies Guild
• Knights of Columbus

Pierogi making

Polish Pierogi ruskie, or potato and cheese pierogi.

As an ongoing, year-round fundraiser for the Parish, with proceeds going towards the school or church, Mr. Tom Wronski, a dedicated Parishioner, has for many years organized pierogi making. A group of dough-makers get their early on a Saturday morning to prepare the dough; which is then given to the rollers, who roll the dough thin and cut it into circles; which then are given on trays to the stuffers, who fill the pierogi with Farmer's cheese, potato-and-cheese, or saurkraut filling; which was made the day earlier by the filling-makers; next involved are the boilers, who parboil the raw pierogi; which is then laid out on tables to dry and begin to cool, are then put in the freezers to chill, and finally are put in bags of a dozen based on the filling by the baggers. All of the work is done by volunteers of all ages and backgrounds, who enjoy making pierogi, helping the Parish, and spending time on a Saturday morning with fellow parishioners.

The pierogi are made on many Saturdays throughout the year in preparation for holidays, Parish gatherings, and the Polish Festival, formerly the June Festival, where they are quickly sold-out.

Ceppa Field is located on Gale Avenue, in Meriden, not far from the church; and is currently used by Platt and Maloney high schools.

The Meriden diaspora is Connecticut's oldest Polonia, having been started well-over one-hundred-and-twenty-years-ago. With the modern Polish language largely the result of the turbulence of World War II, there is a recognizable difference between the Polish spoken in Meriden by older immigrants together with their children, and today's Polish speakers in the Ojczyzna, or Fatherland. Some of the earliest Poles to Meriden came in the 1870s, and all of the Polish immigrants which started Saint Stanislaus Parish emigrated during the age of the partition of Poland, meaning many of Meriden's Poles left from the Austro-Hungarian, German, or Russian empires; and not from Poland. And in the early Parish, perhaps the majority of those immigrants came from the Kingdom of Galicia.

Many of these early immigrants left before World War I from Galicia during the Great Economic Emigration, beginning in the 1880s with the mass emigration of Galician peasantry and temporarially ending with the outbreak of the Great World War. The war separated many families on opposite sides of the Atlantic, so to this day many St. Stan's Parishioners maintain Christmas and Easter card contact with distant cousins and families in the old country.

Many of Saint Stanislaus' Polish parishioners returned to fight for Poland's cause in the Blue Army, or Haller's Army, which was formed in France by Poles from diasporas from all over the United States, Canada, and Brazil, as well as by former prisoners of war from the imperial armies of Germany and Russia; they were organized under Gen. Józef Haller.

After the First World War, 1914–1918, many more Poles left the Second Polish Republic for a new start in America. With a thriving economy and industry in Meriden, many of these Poles made their way to Meriden and into the Parish.

The immigration of Poles slowed tremendously after World War II, but continues to this day with new Polish parishioners often finding their way to St. Stanislaus in Meriden.

As a Parish with a very long history in Polonia, the language spoken in Meriden is a lively and enjoyable one, but not particularly correct. Meriden's Polish is the result of the mixing of the dialects and gwaras spoken before World War II, of the entrance of new words from a developing culture, and from the simple passage of time as language changes or is forgotten. A number of minor features of Polish vocabulary spoken in the first half of the 20th century have been retained in gwara merydeńska, which now sound archaic to modern Poles.

Additionally, gwara merydeńska is largely half-na-pół, that is, a part Polish and a part English. Perhaps, the best example of this interesting and endearing form of Polish may be:

"A policeman gave me a ticket on the highway."

Which in modern Polish would appear as:

"Policjant dał mi mandat na autostradzie."

However, in a Polish typical of older Polonias in the United States, this may appear as:

"Kap dał mi tiketa na hajłeju."

Indeed, many Poles which come to an older Polish diaspora may at first find this half-na-pół language to just be an abomination of the beautiful and very complex Polish language, but many will find themselves slowly slipping into this almost unstoppable form of Polish; close contact with both languages makes this form of language often unpreventable. It has a certain history and character to it, which makes its existence somewhat pleasant, however, using this form of dialect with either visiting Poles or in the Fatherland sometimes leads to confusion. It may also be worth mentioning here that some words developed in Polonia before being sent back to Poland, where they are now commonplace and a true part of the Polish language.

• Blejwas, Stanislaus A. (1991). St. Stanislaus B. & M. Parish, Meriden, Connecticut. Central Connecticut State University Polish Studies Program monographs. ISBN 0-910179-01-8.
• The 150th Anniversary of Polish-American Pastoral Ministry. Webster, Massachusetts: St. Joseph Basilica. September 11, 2005.
• The Official Catholic Directory in USA

• St. Stanislaus - ParishesOnline.com