Holy Innocents Church, (), is a church of the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago The Archdiocese of Chicago () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction, an archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church located in Northeast Illinois, Northeastern Illinois, in the United States. The Vatican erected it as a diocese in 1843 and e ...

located at 743 North Armour Street in the East Village neighborhood of

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. It is a prime example of the so-called " Polish Cathedral style" of churches in both its opulence and grand scale.

History

Founded in 1905 as a

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 ...

parish, the church was one of a network of Polish churches within the old

Polish Downtown Polish Downtown was Chicago's oldest and most prominent Polish settlement. Polish Downtown was the political, cultural and social capital of Poles in Chicago and of other Polish Americans throughout North America. Centered on Polonia Triangle ...

. The first school and church were in buildings bought from the St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church that had been built in 1867. Holy Innocents remained an ethnic Polish parish until 1975, when it was assigned territorial boundaries. From 1999 to 2009, the former school served as the home of Bishop Alfred Abramowicz Seminary. The parish retains its strong identification with

Chicago Polonia Both immigrant Poles and Americans of Polish heritage live in Chicago, Illinois. They are a part of worldwide '' Polonia'', the Polish term for the Polish Diaspora outside of Poland. Poles in Chicago have contributed to the economic, social an ...

while welcoming

Hispanics The term Hispanic () are people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an ethnic or meta-ethnic term. The term commonly appli ...

and Catholics of other ethnic groups. Although there has been much recent gentrification in the neighborhood, the parish continues to minister in English,

and Spanish. In 2021, the Chicago archdiocese combined Holy Innocents, St. Malachy + Precious Blood, and Santa Maria Addolorata to form the new parish, Blessed Maria Gabriella, with Fr. Matt Eyerman as pastor.

Architecture

The church was designed by the architectural firm of Worthmann and Steinbach who built many of the magnificent Polish Cathedrals in Chicago. Completed in 1912, the church is built in a

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended t ...

style with

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

flourishes. One distinguishing feature of the building is the six cupolas covered in brown tile. The crossing is capped by a large dome with cupolas at the exterior corner of each transept and one atop each of the

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell to ...

s on the west façade. The

stained glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

windows are imported from

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. The structure is constructed of red brick with limestone accents. It sits on a short base of darker brownish brick. The interior was redesigned after a 1962 fire and restored for the Parish centennial in 2005. Words of welcome are engraved in three languages over the triple entrance doors- Welcome, Witamy and Bienvenidos. The campus includes a rectory and school buildings which have been occupied since 2007 b
Golder College Prep School

Church in architecture books

* * * *

External links

References

{{Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, state=collapsed Polish cathedral style architecture Roman Catholic churches in Chicago Polish-American culture in Chicago Roman Catholic churches completed in 1912 1905 establishments in Illinois 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States

History

Architecture

Church in architecture books

External links

See also

References