Fall River’s St. Stanislaus Church and school celebrates Polish heritage after 125 years

Originally published in the Herald News by Emily Scherny

FALL RIVER — St. Stanislaus Church at 37 Rockland St. commemorated a 125th anniversary with a special Sunday mass on Nov. 3, harkening back to its roots as a Roman Catholic parish designated for Polish worshippers. The ceremonious day also marked 30 years since the parish was re-dedicated after surviving a fire in 1991.

Lots of people ask after the unassuming church — and its connecting school — and “at one point in our heyday we had people coming from as far away as Stoughton,” said Denita Tremblay, a former principal of St. Stanislaus School and an active parishioner. Now, she said, that radius is closer to home, with their furthest parishioners driving in from Warren, Rhode Island.

“Once you are here, you feel the presence as well as the community,” Tremblay said.

Earlier that morning, a procession of parishioners and students circled the pews, adorned in festive carmine and traditional Polish garb, carrying gifts symbolic of Polish tradition — like bread, wheat, and grapes — in recognition of St. Stanislaus, the church’s patron saint, and in remembrance of its icon, Lady of Czestochowa.

During the mass, Fall River’s Bishop Edgar da Cunha spoke of the magnitude of faith communities, commenting how the church was often at the center of life, and folks could be identified simply by asking “which parish?” they were born into. He accepted a Polish-made stole imprinted with an image of the patron saint after listening to songs sung in Polish by a choir.

“I was actually born into the parish,” Principal Patricia Coady said, who was first a teacher and is now an administrator working at the school for 28 years. “Bishop really touched upon what I remember our parish to be. … Life consisted of school and church. It was so beautifully meshed. The sense of tradition which you were all privileged to have a piece of today really spoke to who we are at heart.”

St. Stanislaus boasts a ‘vibrant’ multicultural community

Coady said the school and parish have evolved, saying, “now it’s this beautiful myriad of different cultures,” and that an influx of Brazilian and Hispanic parishioners have “enriched” the school and faith community. 

At the brunch that followed the procession and special service, Karen Plichtn, a parishioner, agreed with the vibrancy of the church community. “That’s how it was,” said, commenting on the church’s persisting values. 

Tremblay, whose family generations had a hand in founding the parish, claimed that now Polish folks make up about 2% of parishioners. She recalled that “the school was always very vibrant,” and starting about 20 years ago, fewer and fewer parishioners were Polish, “but everybody embraced Polish culture even though they came from different cultures, whether it be Filipino, or French, or Portuguese.” 

Coady said she continues the tradition of embracing others. St. Stanislaus is uniquely housed in the same building as the school, with a set of doors that face the altar to separate desks from pews. 

Coady explained that having the church connected to the school is inherent in its philosophy of intertwining faith education with academic lessons. Classes begin the day in prayer “from preschool to eighth grade,” Coady said.

“Younger people are starting to join us older people to whom we can pass the torch,” she said. She cited the younger generation as “a smaller group” of parishioners compared to her generation, but that “goes with culture and society; everything that used to be very large is now more self-contained,” Tremblay said, even church-going habits in general. 

In the last century, the parish and school have ‘been through alot’

Tremblay was principal at the time of the fire that compromised the original St. Stanislaus Church, located where the parish lot is now.

“The school was not affected by fire,” she said, and there were no damages, “but our auditorium became a worship space.” 

Renovations were completed in 1994, with the exterior of the school being given a modest steeple and a second floor. During that period of three years between the fire and re-dedication, “we moved into Saint Patrick’s School for a year,” Tremblay said. Nearly 180 students were enrolled at the time. “We were on the top floor of the school and facilities were rather limited.” 

On the day of the school’s reopening, “the entire parish showed up,” with rented moving vans, and “people stationed at every single landing on the stairs and every single doorway.”

Thomas Wrobel is a past student of St. Stanislaus School but is now an active member of the parish. Like Coady, he, too, was born into the church. He shared that his grandparents were Polish immigrants who relocated from New York to Fall River due to the appeal of jobs and the city’s esteem as a mill town. His parents were parishioners. Now, he sits on the church’s committee and serves as an officer in their religious education program. 

Of the event and procession, “It means a lot,” Wrobel said. “We’ve gone through a lot in this parish. We’ve gone through fires and priests … and we’re small parish, and we don’t have alot of members.” 

Wrobel was in the church when the fire started. “Something in the ceiling caught fire. It was in April,” Wrobel remembered. “I’m not sure we even had the AC on. We saw flames popping from the top, almost hitting the altar. Somebody screamed ‘fire.’”

Everybody evacuated safely, but not before numerous parishioners hung back to remove vestments and anything of religious value, relocating them to the rectory. 

The church continues to thrive thanks to its loyal patrons

Donations from parishioners kept the church going, funding the renovations, the high-ceilinged atrium and the decorative windows which were on display for the well-attended anniversary service that morning. 

“It brough tears to my eyes,” another parishioner, Ann Bielawski, said, reminiscing on memories of the 1960s and ’70s when her Polish grandparents and parents bestowed her their culture.

Wrobel said the strength of the church community’s faith “provides us with some type of anchor,” and it’s a matter of “trying to pass on what our ancestors gave to us.”