St. Josaphat Roman Catholic Church in Philadelphia is located in the Manayunk section of Northwest Philadelphia at 124 Cotton Street. This parish was merged with those of St. John the Baptist and St. Mary of the Assumption in 2012.
The church was named in honor of Saint Josaphat, who was born circa 1580 as John Kuncevic in Vladimir, a village of the Lithuanian Province of Volhynia (then a part of the Polish Kingdom begun under the Jagiellonian dynasty), and who rose to increasing positions of authority within the church after professing his faith. Murdered in Vitebsk (Belarus) on November 12, 1623, while working to reunify the diocese he had been assigned to lead, he was declared "Blessed" by Pope Urban VIII in May 1643. He was then canonized as a saint on June 29, 1867, by Pope Pius IX and, on the tercentenary of his martyrdom (November 12, 1923) was declared by Pope Pius XI to be the heavenly Patron of Reunion between Orthodox and Catholics." On November 25, 1963, during the Second Vatican Council, the remains of Saint Josaphat were officially laid to rest at the altar of St. Basil in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. This action was ordered by Pope John XXIII.
History
St. Josaphat's parish was founded in 1898. According to historians at the Polish American Liturgical Center in Orchard Lake, Michigan:
"Polish Immigrants looking to better themselves financially, settled where there was more work. In the section of Philadelphia called Manayunk, there was a great need for workers in steel, wool and paper plants. Towards the end of the 19th Century near the Schuylkill River, there was a large steel plant under the name of American Bridge Co. later called Penncoyd Iron Works who employed many of these hard working Poles. The Poles living in Manayunk were very happy with their employment, but a little saddened by the fact that they had no Polish Church of their own to which they could go to and pray to God, to sing in their native tongue and to thank God for the graces given them. The nearest Polish Church which they attended was so many miles away, and travel in those days was hard, because the Mother Church, St. Laurentius, was located in the part of Philadelphia called 'Fishtown.'
Representatives of the Local Group appealed to the Diocesan Authorities for permission to establish a Polish Church for the Polish People. Archbishop Ryan in 1898 sent Rev. Mieczyslaus Kopytkiewicz to organize the Parish. The first services were held in St. John's Lower Church. (Incidentally, the services were held here also when the present new church was being built.)"
The Rev. Henry Chajencki was then placed in charge of the parish in December 1898. Under his leadership, church leaders paid $25,000 for the old Fourth Reformed Presbyterian Church building on the corner of Silverwood and Cotton, and also purchased "a double home on Grape Street that served as a Rectory and later as a Convent" as they worked to grow their number of parishioners. A 36-year-old in failing health, Father Chajencki died on Christmas Day in 1900, and was buried in St. John's Cemetery. The Rev. Dr. Thomas Misicki served briefly as the parish's pastor until the Rev. Benedict Tomiak could formally take charge of the post. All three men had been residents of Mt. Carmel, Pennsylvania.
Father Tomiak, who had been ministering to the poor as a member of the Congregation of the Missionary Fathers of Saint Vincent de Paul when he was drafted into the military and sent to the front to nurse soldiers during the Franco-Prussian War, and had been ordained in 1893 at the age of 50 after resuming his studies in Rome post-war, had emigrated to America shortly thereafter. Following seven years of service in Shamokin and Mt. Carmel he was appointed to his position at St. Josaphat's on January 20, 1901. During his 11-year tenure, he launched a parish parochial school (soon after arriving) and invited the Bernardine Sisters in as faculty, and founded two orphanages (one in West Conshohocken and the other in his native Wolsztyn). As the parochial school's student population grew, the Bernardines were replaced by the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception from New Britain, Connecticut (c. 1905–1910) and then the Sisters of Nazareth (c. 1910–1911).