Click here to visit the Polish Province website (in polish)
The Polish Province of the Congregation has had several phases of its history: its beginnings are associated with several unsuccessful attempts to settle in their native land, on the part of the founding group (1842—Semenenko; 1848—Kajsiewicz; 1852—Hube), at a time when Poland was not found on the map of Europe. Even work in Poland as chaplains (with the Immaculate Conception Sisters [1869] and with court nobility [1880]) did not provide any durability or possibilities for further development.
Only with the purchase of a house from the Franciscan Sisters on Piekarski Street in Lviv, and the opening of a boarding house for youth of the Greek Catholic Rite, along with pastoral work at a small local mission church, was an outlook of stability created. Thus the superior general of the Congregation appointed Fr. Valerian Kalinka as Provincial of Galicia, and he is considered the founder of the Polish Province. Indeed, under his jurisdiction a foundation was soon underway on Lobzowska Street in Cracow (1884), which was the location of the Novitiate and a boarding school, as well as the seat of the Province of Cracow under Bakanowski, beginning in 1897. This state of affairs lasted until the division of provinces was superseded in 1902.
After 30 years the 1932 General Chapter established the General Delegation of Poland, which in 1948 was renamed the Polish Province, whose first Provincial Superior was Fr. Czesław Falkiewicz.
When Poland appeared again on the map of Europe in 1918, the first parish which the Province took over was St. Anthony in Radziwiłłow Mazowiecki (1920). With time came parishes in Poznan and Warsaw, and before the outbreak of World War II, in Cracow-Wola Duchacka. After the war (1945) new prospects for pastoral work opened up in Western Pomerania and Gdansk Pomerania.
Today the 193 religious who comprise the Polish Province work in various ministries in Poland and abroad: in Australia, Austria, Bermuda, Bulgaria, Germany, Slovakia, Ukraine, Italy, Tanzania and the Holy Land. There are priests working in 59 parishes and pastoral centers, 3 shrines and 8 chaplaincies. Some Province members work in Church evangelization movements, retreat and vocational ministries, formation and education at different levels, in administration and in print media.
