St. Stanislaus Church (formally Saint Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr Church) in Meriden, Connecticut is a Roman Catholic church originally established in 1891 and dedicated to the Bishop of Kraków, Stanislaus of Szczepanów, an 11th-century Polish Saint. St. Stanislaus's is the third oldest Polish-American Roman Catholic parish in New England and the oldest in the Archdiocese of Hartford. In 2017, Saint Stanislaus parish merged with the nearby Polish-American parish SS. Peter and Paul Parish in Wallingford to form St. Faustina Parish.
The Saint Stanislaus campus of Saint Faustina Parish is made up of the church, school, community center, gymnasium, rectory and garage, convent and chapel, and the cemetery, as well as an outdoor shrine of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Saint Stanislaus parish built the first Polish Roman Catholic church building in Connecticut in 1893, which was replaced by the current church in 1908. The original building also housed the parish school until the construction of the current Saint Stanislaus Parochial School in 1915. The parochial school operated for grades kindergarten through 8th grade until 2015, after which the building was used for a pre-kindergarten program.
Saints Peter and Paul Church was established as an independent parish in 1924 for Polish immigrants setting in Wallingford. The current church building was dedicated a year later in 1925.
The combined parish is named for Faustina Kowalska (1905–1938), a Polish nun canonized in 2000, known for inspiring devotion to Divine Mercy. The parish offices and records are maintained at the Saint Stanislaus campus.
Saint Stanislaus history
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. 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.
Original church
St. Stanislaus Parish in Meriden, Connecticut, was the first Polish parish founded in the Archdiocese of Hartford. On January 1, 1889, John Damach and friends established a Society of St. Stanislaus, Bishop and Martyr, so named because they wanted from the beginning to have the help of a good Polish saint. Services then began to be held in the basement of St. Rose which was set apart for their use. By the following year, the Society had raised sufficient funds to purchase a small piece of land from Składzień for 700 dollars in 1892. The lot on Jefferson Street was 100×170 feet and on top of a hill, and so a bit uncomfortable for the older parishioners, but the land was cheaper than elsewhere, and after all, it was higher and closer to Heaven.
With land at Jefferson and Oak Streets acquired, in 1891, Bishop Lawrence Stephen McMahon appointed Antoni Klawiter as the first pastor. Klawiter had been a Polish insurgent in the January Uprising of 1863 against the Russian Empire. The cornerstone for the church was laid by P. F. McAlenny, pastor of St. Rose's Church, on October 30, 1892. The first Polish church in Meriden, and in the state of Connecticut, was very modest, measuring 40 feet wide by 90 feet long. The original St. Stanislaus Church was built with a small school wing and a few small rooms for the pastor's residence; the construction cost was $5,000. Bishop McMahon dedicated the first St. Stanislaus Church, a small wooden edifice, on January 8, 1893.
Before long the need for a new, larger church became apparent. With a $9,000 treasury, John L. Ceppa bought land for a new church site at the corner of Pleasant St. and Olive St. The Society of St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr immediately began collecting the funds to build a new, temporary church on the site. There was much discussion among the parishioners as to what form the church should take: whether the church would be wooden or brick, towering or low and humble, how to make the altar and organ, would there be a hall, would there be a school, would the tower be tall and cubic or circular like in the old country, gothic architecture or romanesque.
Present church
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.