Valentine CZYZEWSKI

15 FEB 1846 - 31 AUG 1913

• BIRTH: 15 FEB 1846, Lithuania; Talkuny, Poland
• BURIAL: Provincial Cemetery, Notre Dame, IN
• DEATH: 31 AUG 1913, South Bend, IN

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REV VALENTINE CZYZEWSKI
St Hedwig Jubilee Book 1877-1977 pg 11: Priest, teacher, organizer; arrived NY 1869; ordained 28 Dec 1876 DSD; Pastor & organizer of St Hedwig Catholic Church, SBd Tribune: 26 Jun 1938 Sec E: Born 15 Feb 1846 Talkyuny Russia. Attended school at Marian Friary in Miroslaw Poland. Later entered Black Franciscan seminary in Lagiewniki Poland. Because of a Polish insurrection with Russia in 1863, the seminary dispersed. To escape compulsory service in the Czars army, he came to
the United States & landed in NY6 Feb 1868. Worked in LaPorte and SBd as a railroad man. Took his vows at Notre Dame University 15 Aug 1874; was ordained 28 Dec 1876. Became a pastor 1 Jan 1877. Helped build St Stanislaus Kostka Cath Ch in 1884. Served at St John Canty Church in Rolling Prarie in 1891; St Casimir Cath Church in 1898; St Stanislaus Cath Ch in 1900; St Adalbert's Cath Church in 1910.

Valentine Czyzewski, who was born on Feb. 15, 1846, in Talkuny, Suwalki province, Poland, came to South Bend in 1869, after studying in the monasteries of his native land, and entered Notre Dame University in 1872. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1876 and joined the Congregation Sancti Crucis, also known as the Order of the Holy Cross. At the time, the Polish population in South Bend was growing pretty fast because the Studebaker company, the leading wagon manufacturer in the country, sent agents to Poland to find workers. In some cases, recruiters would also lure immigrants in New York as they came off the ships and escort them to South Bend. The first Polish families in South Bend worshipped at St. Patrick's Church, but on January 1, 1877, four days after his ordination, the Rev. Czyzewski was assigned to their care. The Poles erected their own church in 1877, then called St. Joseph's, but two years later it was destroyed by a storm. The fate of the Polish parish was in Czyzewski's hands. He decided to build a new church, which he called St. Hedwig's, in a different location, and, owing to shortage of funds, he first built another school and used it for religious services until 1883, and then erected a new church at a cost of $32,000. It was dedicated April 15, 1884. He built a rectory the same year and a new school in 1886. The school, with eight classrooms, was destroyed by fire on February 4, 1896, and the pastor built another school, with twelve classrooms and a 1000-seat meeting hall.

Rev. Czyzewski was not finished. The first Polish parish grew from 125 to 1,200 families. It became necessary to erect two new churches. St. Casimir's in 1895 and St. Stanislaus, Bishop and Martyr, in 1898, two miles from St. Hedwig's. Father Czyzewski administered St. Stanislaus parish until the bishop appointed a newly ordained priest from South Bend, Rev. Roman Marciniak, as pastor instead of a new immigrant, Rev. T. Jarzynski, who was his assistant. In addition, Father Czyzewski set up Polish missions in Kosciusko (sic), Laporte, Marshall, and Noble counties and often visited other Polish settlements.

Rev. Czyzewski was forced to give up active work in his parish in the dying days of June, 1913, when a torrid heat wave reached the city. However, he wanted to perform a marriage ceremony on Monday, the last day of June, but suffered a heart attack induced by heat. He died June 30, 1913. The South Bend Tribune reported that "between 8,000 and 12,000 people waited in the broiling sun for more than three hours" in order to see and take part in the funeral procession for the Polish priest who had been among them for 40 years. Ret. Rev. Paul Rhode, bishop of Chicago, the first Polish Roman Catholic bishop in the United States, celebrated pontical mass and conducted services in Cedar Grove Cemetery. Thousands of mourners followed the procession to the cemetery, either walking or riding special street cars, which were decorated by the street car company in black and white streamers. On the day Rev. Czyzewski died, the South Bend Tribune wrote this about him: "In no relation does anyone enter so closely into the private lives of men, women and children as in the ministry. And no denominational leader enters so generally into his parishioners' lives, as does a Catholic priest. He is a father to his flock. When a man has stood in the relation of spiritual monitor to one congregation for 35 years, as had Rev. Valentine Czyzewski, his sudden taking away is to the congregation like the taking of one from their very firesides."

On account of labor troubles in South Bend, during which the union, comprised mostly of Polish workers, were unsuccessful in 1876 and 1885, B. Czyzewski moved his family to Braddock, where most of the immigrants worked in the steel mills, and Antonina Czyzewski, whose two sons, Leo and Joseph, were born in New York during the 1890s, moved to Pittsburgh. Teofil Czyzewski, eight years younger than Antonina, also lived in Pittsburgh. In 1910, his wife, Sofia, was 29, and they had five children; two sons, John, 8, and Alfonse, 3; three daughters, Josephine, 10, Victoria, 5, and Pearl. There was another Teofil Czyzewski in Philadelphia.

The first Czyzewski families in Toledo, Ohio, were John and Martin Czyzewski from the conquered part of Poland under German control. Their mother, Frances, 59 years old in 1910, lived with her daughter, Mary, 24, who was married to John Dombrowski, and her granddaughter, Wanda Dombrowski, 3. When he was 26 years old, Andrew Czyzewski had three sons with Antonine (maiden name unknown): Walter, John and Ludwik. Martin Czyzewski, two years older, had two daughters, Laddie and Wanda Stella, with Anna, and a younger brother, John, living with him.

As the Czyzewski families began to feel more at home in their new world, they or their children moved to other places, as did other families from Poland, and in the long look backward, there can be little doubt that they got around and did a lot of things. Up to now, the Social Security Death Index has 253 Czyzewski names.

From: Edward Pinkowski (2009); Ancestry.com: Jan Cyzewski Petition for Citizenship, No. 1719, Box 7. Federal court records, Scranton; Rev. Waclaw Kruszka, A History of the Poles In America to 1908; Rev. Francis Bolek, Who's Who In Polish America; The Polish Community In St. Joseph County; Hoffman, William F., Polish Surnames Origins and Meanings; Rymut, Kazimierz, Slownik nazwisk wspolczesnie w Polsce uzywanych (Directory of Surnames In Current Use In Poland); South Bend Tribune, July 1 and 3, 1913.