Church #17 - St. Adalbert, Providence

St. Adalbert is a Polish parish on Atwells Ave. in Providence. It has Masses in both Polish and English.

I didn't know a thing about St. Adalbert until I looked this church up. First of all, there are three St. Adalberts. The most prominent one, Adalbert of Prague, is the patron saint of Bohemia, Prussia, Hungary, and Poland. As you can see from his name, he was actually Czech, not Polish. He took the name Adalbert as a confirmation name from his teacher, who is also now a saint. He was technically too young to be a bishop when he was ordained Bishop of Prague. He tried to reform the church in his area (among other things, he fought against Christians' participation in the slave trade), and met stiff resistance from both secular powers and his fellow clergy, to the point that he was forced into exile. He ended up a successful missionary to both Hungary and Poland, where he was warmly welcomed and once again made a Bishop. He undertook a final mission to Prussia, where he was martyred. There are two competing cathedrals that claim to have his bones - one in Prague, and one in Poland. John Paul II celebrated Mass at the cathedral in Poland in 1997 to mark the 1000th anniversary of St. Adalbert's martyrdom, with approximately one million people present.

I like the interior of this church a lot. The red carpet reminds me of the parish where I grew up. The place also reminds me of my Mom's home church, which is also Polish, and which also has lots of artwork all over the place. The parish doesn't seem very big, but its parishioners definitely seem devoted to their faith.

I went to Mass here on Saturday morning. The daily mass is in the chapel of a convent next to the church. The order of sisters that live there is called the Felicians; they're a Franciscan order originating from Poland. They came over and ministered to the wave of Polish immigrants over the last 150 years, primarily as teachers. The sisters weren't at the Mass on that particular day, unfortunately, since they were at a conference.

The convent chapel where we had Mass.