History

A brief history of the Parish of Saint Stanislaus, Amsterdam, New York

The first Polish immigrants came to Amsterdam in 1880 in search of employment opportunities. Many had settled in Brazil in the second half of the 19th century and were convinced by labour agents to leave for New York where they could earn money, return to Brazil or relocate.

Originally the Polish Catholics that settled in Amsterdam were ministered to by the clergy of Saint Mary’s Church, Schenectady and later Saint Joseph’s Church, Amsterdam since some of them understood German. The people were eventually encouraged by Fr. Felix Orzechowski, a Polish patriot and veteran of the 1863 insurrection against Russia, to organize their own congregation. On 20 December 1888 the Saint Stanislaus Society was organized to form a parish and build a church.

The community was first served by Fr. Joseph Dereszewski, the pastor of Saint Mary’s Church, Schenectady and early in January 1894 two homes were purchased and converted into a chapel and rectory. On 23 September 1895, Rev. Anton Gorski, a newly ordained priest, was installed as St. Stanislaus’ first resident pastor.

On 27 June 1897 Bishop Thomas Burke dedicated a new church designed by the architect, a Mr. Loth of Troy, New York with Mr. Arthur McNeil of Amsterdam as the contractor. The bells, cast in Troy, New York by the Meneely Bell Company were also blessed. The need for a parochial school became evident and houses and land were purchased for the site of a new school in 1903. A Polish order of women religious, the Sisters of Saint Felix of Cantalice (Felician Sisters) was invited to staff the school. The corner stone was laid and blessed on 16 September 1905.

The activity of the laity was seen to flourish over the years in the founding of the Rosary Society, The Holy Names Society and Saint Michael the Archangel Society. The parish at one time sustained three choirs!

Today, the parish continues to strive to keep some of the Polish devotional and culinary traditions, and language alive. However, the decline of our mill towns along the great New York river basins has caused in turn a decline in population. This makes it difficult for local ethnic parishes to sustain their heritages which have always added colour and flavour to the Catholic faith. This was experienced in the recent closing of our century old parish school which was quickly able to be transformed and birthed in the Saint Stanislaus Center for Learning and the Arts, housing two pre-schools, a Pre-K, a dance studio and a thrift shop. The remaining Felician Sisters changed their mission from teaching to a much needed ministry to the homebound. We are, like many parishes, a parish in transition and transformation challenged as to how to sustain our cultural and religious traditions while embracing new expressions of the faith thereby creating a vibrant Catholicism for the 21st century.

The Polish people of Saint Stanislaus and their descendants brought to Amsterdam a tenacious faith rooted in the memory of struggles against enemies in the “old country”. They created a safe haven of church, school, convent and rectory at the heart of their neighborhood and therefore their lives. This becomes for us today a model of community; of individuals coming together around a common cause - faith.

gratia tibi, Fr. Walter Czechowicz

73 Reid Street, Amsterdam, NY 12010 U.S.A.
info@ststanislaus-ny.org

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