History
In 1889, the Polish community of St. Albertus Roman Catholic Church was outgrowing the capacity of the church, and the parish of St. Josaphat was started on June first to serve the burgeoning community. The church is named after St. Josaphat Kuntsevych, who was a Greek Catholic priest and was appointed archbishop of Polotsk, Poland in 1617. He was martyred in 1623 but not canonized until 1867, which implies that this parish, founded only 22 years later, was one of the first to bear this name.
The church was located on Canfield not far west of the Sweetest Heart Of Mary Roman Catholic Church. It is possible that the choice of location was intended to compete with Sweetest Heart, which was at the time a Polish Catholic church unsanctioned by the diocese. On February 2, 1890, the first building for the St. Josaphat parish, a combination church and school, was dedicated. However, in the next decade, the church grew to over 1,000 families under the leadership of Father Razadkowski. In response, Razadkowski raised funds to build a new church, which is the one still extant today. The church was built in 1901, along with a rectory and janitor’s home. A school was built in the 1920s.
By 1960, the Polish community that had once attended the church had scattered to the suburbs. The school was closed and demolished, and St. Josaphat struggled with dwindling membership and the upkeep of the aging church. However, the parish began a building rehabilitation program, and it continues to serve the Polish community.
In 2004, St. Josaphat became the home for the Archdiocese of Detroit's first regular celebrations of the Tridentine Latin Mass since the liturgical reforms following the Second Vatican Council. Attendance at weekend Masses has significantly increased as people from all over southeastern Michigan travel to St. Josaphat for this liturgy. St. Josaphat has also developed a choir and music program to accompany the Tridentine Mass. Since Pope Benedict XVI in 2007 widened permission for the 1962 form to be used as an extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, St. Josaphat has added weekday and Holy Day Masses and special events for its Latin Mass Community.
Read more about this topic: St. Josaphat's Roman Catholic Church
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