St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church () is a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

parish church of the

Archdiocese of Baltimore The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Baltimore () is the archdiocese of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church in northern and western Maryland in the United States. It is the metropolitan see of the Ecclesiastical Province of Baltimore. The Archd ...

located in the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

neighborhood of

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

. It is administered by the Josephites and serves a primarily

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

congregation.

History

St. Wenceslaus was founded in 1872 in a neighborhood of East Baltimore that was then known as Little Bohemia. The parish was created primarily to serve the

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

n (

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

) community in Baltimore. As suggested by parish records (which begin around May 1872), a significant number of early attendees came from

South Bohemia The South Bohemian Region () is an administrative unit (''kraj'') of the Czech Republic, located mostly in the southern part of its historical land of Bohemia, with a small part in southwestern Moravia. The western part of the South Bohemian Reg ...

around

Milevsko Milevsko (; ) is a town in Písek District in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 8,000 inhabitants. Administrative division Milevsko consists of six municipal parts (in brackets population according to the 2021 census): ...

, as well as the

Plzeň Region Plzeň Region or Plzeňský Region (also known as Pilsen Region; ) is an Regions of the Czech Republic, administrative unit () of the Czech Republic, located in the western part of the historical land of Bohemia and named after the capital, Plz ...

south of

Nepomuk Nepomuk (; ) is a town in Plzeň-South District in the Plzeň Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 3,600 inhabitants. It is known as the birthplace of Saint John of Nepomuk, who was born here around 1340. Administrative division Nepomuk ...

(especially Pačejov and Myslív). Also attending included

Slovaks The Slovaks ( (historical Sloveni ), singular: ''Slovák'' (historical: ''Sloven'' ), feminine: ''Slovenka'' , plural: ''Slovenky'') are a West Slavic ethnic group and nation native to Slovakia who share a common ancestry, culture, history ...

, especially from the parish of Studienka (also known as Szentistván),

Švábovce Švábovce (, ) is a village and municipality in Poprad District in the Prešov Region of northern Slovakia. History In historical records the village was first mentioned in 1268. Geography The municipality lies at an altitude of 639 metres and ...

(including

Hôrka Hôrka () is a village and municipality in Poprad District in the Prešov Region of northern Slovakia. Geography The municipality lies at an altitude of 610 metres and covers an area of 11.305 km2. It has a population of about 1560 people. ...

and Ondrej (also known as Szent-András)), Lakšárska Nová Ves (including Mikulášov, also known as Niklhof), and Horné Orešany (also known as Felsődiós). Church services were originally held in both the English and

languages. The present church was built in 1914, and at that time the church had 7,000 Bohemian Catholic members. By 1920 the church was the fourth largest in the

. In recent years, the ethnic character of St. Wenceslaus parish has undergone a gradual change from a majority

parish to one that is multicultural and multiracial, first as many

Poles Pole or poles may refer to: People *Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland * Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name * Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist ...

and

Lithuanians Lithuanians () are a Balts, Baltic ethnic group. They are native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,378,118 people. Another two million make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the Lithuanian Americans, United Sta ...

moved into the neighborhood, and then as the neighborhood shifted to having an

majority. Since 2018, St. Wenceslaus has been administered by the Josephites, a congregation that serves African-Americans. St. Wenceslaus was founded and staffed by priests and

lay brother Lay brother is a largely extinct term referring to religious brothers, particularly in the Catholic Church, who focused upon manual service and secular matters, and were distinguished from choir monks or friars in that they did not pray in choi ...

s of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, known as the

Redemptorists The Redemptorists, officially named the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (), abbreviated CSsR, is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of pontifical right for men (priests and brothers). It was founded by Alphonsus Liguori at Scala ...

, until 1999. Later, it was administered by

friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders in the Catholic Church. There are also friars outside of the Catholic Church, such as within the Anglican Communion. The term, first used in the 12th or 13th century, distinguishes the mendi ...

s of the Franciscan Third Order Regular, and as of 2022 is under the leadership of the Josephites.

Architecture

The building's overall design is in the

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...

style.

Notable attendees

* John Fick, baseball player * August Klecka, politician

Parish records online

Births and baptisms 1872-1892 (with additional information back to 1868)Deaths and burials 1880-1979

References

External links

Archdiocese of Baltimore website

St. Wenceslaus Roman Catholic Church Website

Image of the church

St. Wenceslaus evangelization still knocking

Faith keeps broken neighborhood together
St Wenceslaus Lyceum - 2

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Wenceslaus In Baltimore 1872 establishments in Maryland African-American history in Baltimore African-American Roman Catholic churches Czech-American culture in Baltimore Franciscan churches in the United States Italianate architecture in Maryland Lithuanian-American culture in Baltimore Middle East, Baltimore Polish-American culture in Baltimore Redemptorist churches in the United States Roman Catholic churches completed in 1914 Religious organizations established in 1872 Roman Catholic churches in Baltimore Roman Catholic Ecclesiastical Province of Baltimore Slovak-American culture in Maryland Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States Italianate church buildings in the United States Josephite churches in the United States