St. Adalbert's Cemetery in Niles marks 150 years with notable monuments, thousands of stories and a personal reflection by the author, who has relatives buried there. Read more from Pam DeFiglio.
People gather at the Katyn monument during the 150th anniversary celebration of St. Adalbert's Cemetery in Niles on All Souls Day, also called the Day of the Dead, Nov. 2, 2022.
I just happened randomly on this monument, but I imagine the sorrow of Marie’s father Vaclav, 1854-1922, and mother Marie, 1856-1934, at having lost their daughter at such a young age. Did they mourn her for the rest of their lives? I silently honor the younger Marie, who missed out on so much.Cemeteries can be like that. Gazing at graves can put you in a kind of reverie, imagining the life stories of people with only weather-beaten stone markers for clues.
Both of them had come to St. Adalbert’s for the 150th anniversary celebration, and were handing out brochures explaining that in 1872, Polish and Bohemian church pastors in Chicago joined forces to buy the original 12-acre plot that became St. Adalbert’s Cemetery because, essentially, they needed someplace to bury their parishes’ dead. Today, it’s more than 250 acres, stretching from Harlem Avenue east to Milwaukee Avenue, and from almost Touhy Avenue to almost Devon Avenue .
“The idea was to also imbue the children and grandchildren with a sense of Polishness,” he said. “These were rural people who came from a very different culture, moving to an industrial city that was hostile to them, and they were working unskilled jobs on the lowest rung of the ladder. It was important to them to create a sense of community.”St.
This is the monument to victims of the Katyn massacre, a name that still hurts Polish hearts. In 1940, the Soviet Union conducted a mass execution of many thousands of Polish prisoner-of-war military officers in the Katyn forest near Smolensk, Russia, according toWojciech Seweryn, a Polish Chicago artist with ties to Niles, designed and created the Katyn monument at St. Adalbert’s partly as a tribute to his own father, who was killed at Katyn.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
In a world-first, an electric-powered plane was charged by Ford F-150 LightningsAn engineering student from Lafayette College used two Ford F-150 Lightnings to charge an electric powered plane.
Read more »
Legoland Florida Shows How It Built A Full-Size, 320,000 Brick F-150 Lightning | CarscoopsDespite being made up of more than 320,000 bricks, it actually only weighs about half as much as a real F-150 Lightning
Read more »