Mount Carmel has been a fervent incubator of Polish culture, Catholic faith in Bayonne (Photos)
The Bayonne church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, now part of St. John Paul II parish, has existed for over half the history of the United States.
Last month, parishioners young and old gathered to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the storied parish with celebratory Masses and a festive banquet. They were joined by Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Newark Gregory J. Studerus and Bishop Karol Kulczycki of Port Pirie, Australia. Congratulations to Pastor Zenon Boczek, jubilee co-chairs Cindy Macon and Evelyn Magarban, and all parishioners on this joyful occasion.
Mount Carmel’s history is Bayonne’s history, and Bayonne’s history is Mount Carmel’s history. Poles and other immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe flocked to Bayonne at the turn of the last century to find employment as laborers in the behemoth enterprises sprouting across “the Hook,” as Bayonne’s industrial east side was colloquially known. Hungry for cheap labor, American titans of industry, such as Standard Oil, provided the immigrants with back-breaking employment but little dignity, community, or joy. For that, the Poles turn to each other, and their faith.
The budding Polish enclave first gathered in the basement of St. Mary’s Star of the Sea, Bayonne’s oldest Catholic parish. They pooled their funds and united their voices in petitioning the church for the right to establish a parish for themselves. A parish that would remind them of the homeland they left behind and give them comfort from their daily gray existence.
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Their wishes were granted, and thanks to the help of Father Kwiatkowski, pastor of New Jersey’s first Polish parish, Jersey City’s St. Anthony, Our Lady of Mount Carmel was established in Bayonne on Jan. 25, 1898.
The early years were almost unimaginably difficult by today’s standards, as disputes and schisms divided the young congregation, while poverty and exploitative labor practices plagued the parish’s breadwinners. What meager funds they managed to earn that did not go to pay slumlords for a room in a squalid tenement or to purchase food for their large families, the parishioners gave in support to their dream of a beautiful house of worship.
Situated in the middle of Bayonne’s Second Ward, Mount Carmel church was always physically close to its parishioners, only feet away from the tenements that used to line the streets across the tracks leading to the gates of the industrial plants on the Hook. As Bayonne grew, and the city’s Polish community with it, so did the church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, adding a convent, grammar school, rectory and parish hall in quick succession. The parish grew so large that in the late 1920s, some parishioners living uptown fervently petitioned the bishop for a second Polish Catholic parish on 50th Street. They complained that Mount Carmel church, with a capacity for 800 souls, was packed to capacity during the eight Masses on Sunday, leaving the faithful as a “fertile field sown with excellent seed, but so densely, that there is great hampering in reaping a harvest.” Ultimately, another Polish Catholic parish was not established in Bayonne.
During World War I, parishioners served as American doughboys, and members of the Polish Blue Army, composed of Polish volunteers from America who fought with the Allies. World War II saw thousands again flock to our nation’s flag, and 106 parishioners made the ultimate sacrifice. The parish organized the Polish Relief Committee, which raised funds and goods for war victims in Poland. During the 1980s, following the crackdown on the Solidarity movement in Communist Poland, the parish not only rallied support for the Polish independence movement, but hosted dissidents who served as artists and helped beautify the church.
Over the years, Mount Carmel has been a fervent incubator of Polish culture and Catholic faith in Bayonne. The parish was said at one time to be the largest Polish Catholic parish on the Eastern Seaboard. Staffed by the Felician Sisters, OLMC school educated generations of Bayonne’s youth during its century of existence, instilling in pupils not only the fundamentals of arithmetic and language arts, but also instruction in Polish language, history, and customs. The parish produced two mayors for the city of Bayonne: Richard A. Rutkowski in 1990 and Leonard P. Kiczek in 1994.
Today, the parish retains its Polish influences while serving all people of Bayonne, including the former parishioners of St. Michael’s, St. Joseph’s, and Assumption parishes, which were merged in 2016 to create the parish family of St. John Paul II. Today, the parish is administered by the Polish Salvatorian Fathers and continues to foster the faith with traditions not unlike those from 125 years ago. From Corpus Christi processions to Lenten lamentations, Polish Easter basket blessings, and midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, the parish offers six Masses every weekend including two in Polish and one in Italian.
If the poor, soot-covered refinery-still cleaners who gave pennies from their meager wages could see their beautiful church today, and the smiling faces of parishioners celebrating their 125th anniversary, they would be proud of their collective accomplishment.
As we approach America’s 250th anniversary in 2026, the best thing we could do to pay tribute to our collective past is to ensure that historic structures such as Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church and other historic Bayonne structures are finally listed on the state and National Register of Historic Places. It’s long overdue.
This article originally appeared in The Jersey Journal and is reprinted with permission.
Matthew Stefanski served as master of ceremonies for Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church’s 125th-anniversary jubilee dinner reception held on June 11.
Photos courtesy Matthew Stefanski.
