St. Joseph Basilica is a parish church in

Webster, Massachusetts Webster is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 17,776 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Named after statesman Daniel Webster, the town was founded by indust ...

, founded in 1887 as the first

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

parish designated for Polish immigrants in

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

. Located in the Catholic Diocese of Worcester, it was raised to the dignity of a

minor basilica In the Catholic Church, a basilica is a designation given by the Pope to a church building. Basilicas are distinguished for ceremonial purposes from other churches. The building need not be a basilica in the architectural sense (a rectangular ...

in 1998 by

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

Architecture

St. Joseph Basilica is a neo-gothic structure designed by architect John W. Donohue, who was for many years the official architect of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, which at the time encompassed Webster and all of Worcester County.

References

* The 150th Anniversary of Polish-American Pastoral Ministry, Webster, Massachusetts (September 11, 2005)

External links

Diocese of Worcester

Official site of St Joseph Parish
* Polish Cathedral style *

Polish American Polish Americans ( pl, Polonia amerykańska) are Americans who either have total or partial Polish ancestry, or are citizens of the Republic of Poland. There are an estimated 9.15 million self-identified Polish Americans, representing about 2.83 ...

Basilica churches in Massachusetts Christian organizations established in 1887 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester Churches in Worcester County, Massachusetts Roman Catholic churches completed in 1887 Polish-American culture in Massachusetts 1887 establishments in Massachusetts {{Massachusetts-church-stub

Architecture

See also

References

External links