Saint Stanislaus Cathedral is the headquarters and one of the first churches built of the

Polish National Catholic Church The Polish National Catholic Church (PNCC; , PNKK) is an independent Old Catholic church based in the United States and founded by Polish Americans that is part of the Union of Scranton. The PNCC is not in communion the Roman Catholic Church. S ...

. It is named after

Stanislaus of Szczepanów Stanislaus of Szczepanów (; 26 July 1030 – 11 April 1079) was a Polish Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Kraków and was martyred by the Polish King Bolesław II the Bold. He is the patron saint of Poland. Stanislaus is vener ...

History

Establishment

Establishment of the parish of St. Stanislaus occurred due to a dispute between the Roman Catholic priest and Polish parishioners at the Heart of Jesus and Mary Parish in Scranton over the parish finances and laity involvement. For many years the Polish Catholic in the area had been unsatisfied with the Catholic administration, who were mostly non-Poles. In 1895, an incident occurred when the parishioners would not let the priest say mass, resulting in the priest expelling them and many Polish families leaving the parish and establishing their own church. Soon the new congregation broke with the Roman Catholic church and established their own denomination. On March 14, 1897, the parish assembly elected Franciszek Hodur, a Polish-American Catholic priest as its pastor. Hodur was consecrated as a bishop in 1907 in

Utrecht Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, by three

Old Catholic The terms Old Catholic Church, Old Catholics, Old-Catholic churches, or Old Catholic movement, designate "any of the groups of Western Christians who believe themselves to maintain in complete loyalty the doctrine and traditions of the Great C ...

bishops. The Polish National Catholic Church considers him to be the founder and first bishop of their denomination. In 1898 Hodor and others who had been excommunicated burned their excommunication letters from Rome and tossed them in the river. In 1900 Hodor broke with tradition by chanting the Christmas Eve midnight mass in

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

rather than

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

Modern day

On November 21, 2010 Anthony Mikovsky was installed as prime bishop of the Polish National Catholic Church by bishop emeritus Robert M. Nemkovich. The Roman Catholic bishop of Scranton Joseph Bambera and bishop emeritus James Timlin also attended the event. In December 2016 the church announced that St. Stanislaus Elementary School, which had been run by the cathedral for over 120 years, would close in June 2017, citing a steep decline in enrollment for the past 5 years.

Building

The parish operates St. Stanislaus cemetery, where Michael Sevensky, a parishioner at the cathedral and member of

Merrill's Marauders Merrill’s Marauders (named after Frank Merrill) or Unit ''Galahad'', officially named the 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional), was a United States Army long range penetration special operations jungle warfare unit, which fought in the South-E ...

, is buried. The cathedral also operates Saint Stanislaus Youth Center in Scranton.

Function

The Cathedral is today the seat of central diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church which goes from Albany, N.Y., to

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

and serves around 25,000 members.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Stanislaus Cathedral, Scranton, Pennsylvania Polish National Catholic cathedrals Old Catholic church buildings in the United States Churches in Scranton, Pennsylvania Cathedrals in Pennsylvania 1895 establishments in Pennsylvania Religious organizations established in 1895 Churches completed in 1897