Holy Innocents Archives

About Holy Innocents Church

We would like to welcome you to Holy Innocents Church. Below is a short summary of the beginning of our parish, which took place over 100 years ago.

Greeting the visitor, the traveler, and the immigrant on the Statue of Liberty is the message: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” proclaiming that America has opened its shores to the people of the world with the promise of a better life.

Holy Innocents has a rich history that can be traced back to the migration of Poles to Chicago 1806. While Polish Americans were in the United States before that date, the United States Census recorded 106 Poles in the north side of Chicago near St. Stanislaus Kostka and St. Adalbert. These two Catholic parishes served as the neighboring churches that would lead to the creation of Holy Innocents in the early 1900s due to a massive migration of Polish Americans to the near north side of Chicago. The parishioners of Holy Innocents worked together to solve problems in our parish and provide support for other communities throughout our history. Additionally, as time passed, our parish continued to change with the surrounding area. Our church is now a multicultural parish serving a variety of parishioners that continues to be involved in our surrounding community.

To continue reading is a detailed written history of our Parish history from our Anniversary Commemorative Albums on the church's 80th and 100th anniversary books, click here. As a word of caution, this detailed history is not short, but knowing the history behind such a great part of our community helps create an appreciation for all of those who came before us. The stories written below originated with the early members of our parish.

As you will read, the men and women of our parish achieved many great goals in helping their neighbors, the surrounding communities, and even their countries through times of hardship. As we reflect on the past, we only hope that great leaders will rise and continue to make history at Holy Innocents just as our predecessors did for the past 100 years.

Each history section has a title of the source of the Anniversary Commemorative Albums on the church's 80th and 100th anniversary books before each entry. If you have any material that you would like to consider adding to the rich history of our church, please contact the rectory. We hope you enjoy the history of our parish.