The steeples of St. Hyacinth tower high over the roofs of houses in the Logan Square-Avondale neighborhood. Now, with the church’s recent elevation to basilica, it holds as lofty a position in the Roman Catholic Church as it already did with the city’s sizable Polish population.
It is only the third basilica in the archdiocese and the first to receive the honorary designation in more than 40 years. The honor was awarded to reflect both the parish’s history as the heart of Chicago’s Polish Catholic community and the continued pride and devotion of its parishioners and pastors, who sought the designation in a petition to the Vatican.
Longtime parishioners beam proudly when they talk about their church’s exalted status, proclaimed by Cardinal Francis George at a mass Nov. 30.
“It’s so beautiful, it’s so majestic,” said Anne Janiga, 82, a parish member since she was 15 who raised seven children while attending the church. “It’s like a place of peace and serenity. I just love going into it. I could just sit there for hours.”
For more than a century, St. Hyacinth–Jackowa in Polish–has served the waves of Polish immigrants flocking to Chicago, and 8,000 to 10,000 people still attend masses in English and Polish every Sunday.
The idea to seek recognition as a basilica developed three years ago, after the church went through a sweeping restoration that included brilliantly repainting the interior– crowned by a 3,000-square-foot mural 75 feet high on the base of the dome. Both George and Cardinal Jozef Glemp of Poland commented on the church’s beauty, prompting the parish to put together an application, including figures on attendance at mass, confession and ceremonies.
George sponsored the effort, said associate pastor Rev. Francis Rog, but final approval came from Pope John Paul II himself, who had visited the church when he was Poland’s cardinal.
St. Hyacinth was founded when about 40 Polish families settled in the Logan Square area. A Resurrectionist priest traveled from St. Stanislaus Kostka Church for the spiritual care of these Poles, and mass was celebrated in a temporary chapel at the corner of Milwaukee and Central Park Avenues on Christmas 1894.
The Polish immigrant population grew rapidly, and the present church at 3636 W. Wolfram St.–a red-brick edifice in the German-Polish tradition, with an ornate interior showing a Baroque influence–was filled to capacity for its first five masses upon its opening on Aug. 7, 1921.
Today St. Hyacinth, whose pews can hold 2,000 people at a time, still is one of the archdiocese’s largest parishes In recent decades, many Poles have moved to the suburbs, “but no matter where they go, they come back here on Sundays,” said Joe Jurek, 46, president of the parish pastoral council.
Technically the church is now known as a minor basilica. There are only a handful of major basilicas, mostly in Rome. Minor basilicas are scattered throughout the world, with about 50 in the United States.
It is an uncommon honor for a church to be designated a basilica, but the criteria are not hard and fast. To be outstanding, it has to be more than just a big, old, beautiful church.
“Size is not central to a basilica, but it doesn’t hurt,” said Monsignor Francis Maniscalco, a spokesman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “It’s usually historic importance or importance as a center of worship, and usually those two things go together.”
Two of the more famous basilicas in the United States are the quaint Mission San Carlos Borromeo in Carmel, Calif., and the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., the largest Catholic church in the Western Hemisphere.
Chicago’s other two basilicas are Our Lady of Sorrows, 3121 W. Jackson Blvd., and Queen of All Saints, 6280 N. Sauganash Ave.
Our Lady of Sorrows, named a basilica in 1956, was distinguished by a weekly novena to the Virgin Mary that attracted up to 70,000 worshipers to the church every Friday during the Great Depression and World War II. Queen of All Saints, an architectural standout with 3,300 registered families today, became a basilica in 1962.
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Basilicas are different from cathedrals, which are the seats of bishops and generally considered the most important churches in any diocese. However, many cathedrals also have been proclaimed basilicas.
Among the privileges accorded a basilica is that the faithful can gain a plenary indulgence–an absolution of sins–by visiting the cathedral on certain days. In the case of the new basilica that includes the feast of St. Hyacinth on Aug. 17. As a basilica, the parish also may use the papal insignia on the church facade and on banners and furnishings in the church. Other distinctive emblems include the “tintinnabulum,” a small bell mounted on the altar to announce the arrival of the pope or the archbishop.
Also on the altar is an “ombrellino”–a symbolic umbrella formerly carried over the pope when he would travel on horseback on official visits. It remains partially open to indicate the church’s constant readiness to welcome the pope and other church dignitaries if they wish to celebrate the liturgy, which makes becoming a basilica both an honor and an obligation. A basilica also must uphold a high level of worship and religious instruction, particularly through conferences and speakers.
“That’s like a promise being made,” Rog said. “Yes, we’ll serve the church openly and eagerly, devoutly.”