Sacred Heart-Saint Wenceslaus Church
| Sacred Heart-Saint Wenceslaus Church | |
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| 44°8′4″N 91°31′37″W / 44.13444°N 91.52694°WCoordinates: 44°8′4″N 91°31′37″W / 44.13444°N 91.52694°W | |
| Location | Pine Creek, Wisconsin |
| Country | United States |
| Denomination | Roman Catholic |
| Architecture | |
| Architect(s) | C.G. Maybury (1830–1917) |
Sacred Heart-Saint Wenceslaus Church in Pine Creek, Wisconsin, referred to in Polish as Kościół Najświętszego Serca Pana Jezusa i Świętego Wacława, is a historic church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of La Crosse. It is known simply as Sacred Heart.
The congregation dates back to 1862, when the Kaszubian Polish and the Bohemian families settling in Pine Creek united to practice their faith in the absence of any nearby Roman Catholic parish. On February 7, 1864, a parish was formally established and dedicated to Saint Wenceslaus, in honor of the parish's Bohemian contingent. Despite the Bohemian name, the parish was predominantly Polish and was served by Polish-speaking priests. In all likelihood, the parish's predominance of Kaszubian Poles led to the addition of "Sacred Heart" to the church's name, recognizing a devotion particularly dear to Poles.
The first permanent pastor was the Reverend Florentine Zadzioski, who arrived in 1866. Until roughly the turn of the century, pastors came and went frequently. As Polonia expanded, Polish-speaking priests were in high demand, and not every priest could flourish in a rustic setting like Pine Creek. The arrival of the Reverend Jakob W. Gara as pastor on June 10, 1904 marked the beginning of an era for Sacred Heart-Saint Wenceslaus. Although he ruled the parish with an iron hand, as was expected of Roman Catholic pastors in those days, he was genuinely beloved by his flock. One anecdote relates that Reverend Gara was known to appear in the local saloons and buy the patrons (all of whom were his parishioners) a round. He died, worn out from his efforts at the comparatively young age of 62, on December 29, 1937. His funeral on January 3, 1938, was attended by more than 1,500 mourners. After Reverend Gara's death, the parish was pastored by Polish-speaking priests well into the 1960s.
The original Sacred Heart-Saint Wenceslaus Church, a small frame building, was constructed shortly after the parish's formal establishment in 1864. It stood on top of the hill, overlooking the location of the current church. On May 10, 1875, a new pastor, the Reverend Adolf Snigurski, began construction of the present church. This church was designed by C.G. Maybury of Winona, who later designed the Basilica of Saint Stanislaus Kostka in Winona, Minnesota. On November 12, 1875, it was completed and dedicated. Combined with the rectory, the parish school building, and the convent built for the nuns who taught at the parish school, the church literally dominated the hamlet of Pine Creek. As the Winona Republican Herald commented in reporting on Sacred Heart-Saint Wenceslaus's fiftieth anniversary celebration, the church was truly a village in itself.
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Wikipedia