Holy Rosary Church (Baltimore, Maryland)

Holy Rosary Church
Holy Rosary Church
Baltimore Holy Rosary Church
	Holy Rosary Church
	39°17′12″N 76°35′14″W / 39.286567°N 76.587269°W
Location	Baltimore
Country	United States
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Website	www.holyrosarypl.org
History
Founded	December 8, 1887
Founder(s)	Polish immigrants
Dedicated	March 15, 1928
Consecrated
Associated people	Monsignor Stanislaus Wachowiak
Architecture
Functional status	Active
Heritage designation	For Polish immigrants
Architect(s)	Baldwin and Radziszewski
Architectural type	Church
Style	Polish Cathedral style and Romanesque Revival
Groundbreaking	1927
Completed
Construction cost	$600,000
Specifications
Capacity	2,000
Materials	Woodstock granite and marble

Holy Rosary Church is a Roman Catholic church located within the Archdiocese of Baltimore in Baltimore, Maryland. It was established to serve Baltimore's Polish community.

History

The Holy Rosary Church was established to serve the needs of the burgeoning Polish community in Baltimore. The parish was established in 1887, though the present church was built from 1927 to 1928. It is constructed of greystone in the Polish Basilica style of architecture with limestone trim. It is 200 feet long, 100 feet wide, with twin towers 125 feet tall. The north tower contains four bells, the largest of which weighs 3000 pounds. The interior is unobstructed by columns, and seats 2000. The altars are of Carrara marble. The main altar is 20 feet wide and 30 feet high. The communion rail is 80 feet long. The 3 manual Moller organ has 3000 pipes. The original parish had around 500 families, making up 2,000 people.^[1] The church celebrated its first mass on December 8, 1887. In 1889, acreage was purchased outside of Dundalk, Maryland for the construction of a parish cemetery. A parish elementary school was built not long after and the Felician Sisters were invited to teach at the school.

The parish peaked in the 1930s. At that time the church had around 2,500 families (12,000 people in all), the largest in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and the parish elementary school had an enrollment of around 1,800 children. However, the congregation began to decline after World War II. Many Polish-Americans left Baltimore for the suburbs during the 1960s and 1970s, leaving an aging population in the city. Due to declining enrollment, the church closed the parish elementary school in 1997.

The church continues to promote itself as a center for the Baltimore Polonia and actively uses the Polish language. Polish language services are held on Sunday Mass and weekdays. The church's Cardinal Hlond Polish School holds classes on the Polish language and on Polish Catholic history. A number of Polish Catholic traditions are still practiced at the church, such as "Boże Ciało" (Corpus Christi) procession, the Easter Resurrection procession, and the Holy Saturday Easter food basket blessing.

The parish church is the Archdiocesan Shrine for Divine Mercy. The dedication of the Divine Mercy Shrine occurred on the first feast day of Mary Faustina Kowalska. Notably, Pope John Paul II (who was then Karol Cardinal Wojtyla) visited and prayed at the shrine during a visit in 1976.^[2]

Fr. Ronald Pytel was a parish priest at the church. His healed heart condition was one of the miracles cited during the canonization of St. Maria Faustina Kowalski in 2000.^[3]

References

^ The Catholic Church in the United States of America: Undertaken to Celebrate the Golden Jubilee of His Holiness, Pope Pius X, Volume 3. New York: Catholic editing Company. 1914. p. 67. Retrieved August 22, 2012. Baltimore Holy Rosary Church.
^ Torretto, Richard "Rick" (10 June 2010). A Divine Mercy Resource: How to Understand the Devotion to Divine Mercy. Bloomington, IN: iUniverse. p. 203. ISBN 978-1-4502-3236-4. Retrieved August 22, 2012.
^ MacKendrick, Karmen (2008). Fragmentation and Memory: Meditations on Christian Doctrine. Bronx, New York: Fordham University Press. pp. 120–1. ISBN 978-0-8232-2949-9. Retrieved August 22, 2012.

External links

[1] The Catholic Church in the United States of America: Undertaken to Celebrate the Golden Jubilee of His Holiness, Pope Pius X, Volume 3. New York: Catholic editing Company. 1914. p. 67. Retrieved August 22, 2012. Baltimore Holy Rosary Church.

[2] Torretto, Richard "Rick" (10 June 2010). A Divine Mercy Resource: How to Understand the Devotion to Divine Mercy. Bloomington, IN: iUniverse. p. 203. ISBN 978-1-4502-3236-4. Retrieved August 22, 2012.

[3] MacKendrick, Karmen (2008). Fragmentation and Memory: Meditations on Christian Doctrine. Bronx, New York: Fordham University Press. pp. 120–1. ISBN 978-0-8232-2949-9. Retrieved August 22, 2012.

[1]

[2]

[3]

v t e Ethnic history of Baltimore
Groups	African Americans Africans Appalachian Americans Asian Americans Caribbeans Czechs Ethiopians French Germans Greeks Hispanics and Latinos Irish Italians Jews Koreans Lithuanians Native Americans Poles Russians Syrians Ukrainians White Americans
Ethnic enclaves	Chinatown/Little Ethiopia Corned Beef Row French Town Greektown Koreatown Little Appalachia Little Bohemia Little Italy Little Lithuania Little Poland Little Ukrainian Village Otterbein Spanish Town
Institutions	Baltimore American Indian Center Baltimore Hebrew University Bohemian National Cemetery Christ United Church of Christ Concordia Hall Grand Lodge Č.S.P.S. of Baltimore Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation Hebrew Orphan Asylum Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church Holy Rosary Church Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church Jewish Museum of Maryland Lithuanian Hall National Great Blacks In Wax Museum National Slavic Museum Oblate Sisters of Providence Otterbein Church Our Lady of Pompeii Church Polish Home Hall Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture Royal Theatre Russian Night School St. Alphonsus Church St. Casimir Church St. Elizabeth of Hungary St. Francis Xavier Church St. Leo's Church St. Michael the Archangel Ukrainian Catholic Church St. Peter the Apostle Church Sts. Peter & Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church St. Vincent de Paul Church St. Wenceslaus in Baltimore Transfiguration of our Lord Russian Orthodox Church Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association Building Zion Lutheran Church
Events	Baltimore riot of 1968 2015 Baltimore protests
Media	Ethnic press in Baltimore (Baltimore Afro-American Baltimore Jewish Times Baltimore Times Baltimore Wecker Czas Baltimorski Der Deutsche Correspondent Latin Opinion Telegraf Where What When)

v t e Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore
Churches and parishes	List List of churches in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore Cathedral Cathedral of Mary Our Queen Co-cathedral Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Pro-cathedral St. Peter's Pro-Cathedral Parish churches St. Alphonsus Holy Cross Holy Rosary St. Elizabeth of Hungary St. John the Evangelist St. Leo St. Vincent de Paul St. Wenceslaus Our Lady of Pompeii Chapels and shrines National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
Catholic education	Seminaries Mount St. Mary's Seminary St. Mary's Seminary Higher education Loyola University Maryland Mount St. Mary's University Notre Dame of Maryland University St. Mary's University High schools Archbishop Curley Archbishop Spalding Bishop Walsh School Calvert Hall College Cristo Rey Jesuit Loyola Blakefield Maryvale Preparatory School Mercy Mount de Sales Academy Mount Saint Joseph Notre Dame Preparatory School Our Lady of Mount Carmel St. Frances Academy St. John's Catholic Preparatory Saint Maria Goretti St. Mary's The Catholic High School of Baltimore The John Carroll School Closed educational institutions Cardinal Gibbons School Institute of Notre Dame Seton Keough High School Towson Catholic High School Woodstock College
Ordinaries	Archbishops John Carroll, S.J. Leonard Neale, S.J. Ambrose Maréchal, P.S.S. James Whitfield Samuel Eccleston, P.S.S. Francis Patrick Kenrick Martin John Spalding James Roosevelt Bayley James Gibbons Michael Joseph Curley Francis Patrick Keough Lawrence Shehan William Donald Borders William Henry Keeler Edwin Frederick O'Brien William Edward Lori Auxiliary bishops Dominic Laurence Graessel Alfred Allen Paul Curtis Owen Patrick Bernard Corrigan Thomas Joseph Shahan John Michael McNamara Lawrence Shehan Jerome Aloysius Daugherty Sebastian Thomas Austin Murphy Thomas Mardaga F. Joseph Gossman Philip Francis Murphy James Stafford William Clifford Newman John Ricard, S.S.J. Gordon Bennett, S.J. W. Francis Malooly Mitchell T. Rozanski Denis J. Madden Mark E. Brennan Adam Parker Bruce Lewandowski
Miscellany	Plenary Councils of Baltimore The Catholic Review
Suffragan dioceses	Diocese of Arlington Diocese of Richmond Diocese of Wilmington Diocese of Wheeling–Charleston
Catholicism portal Maryland portal