St. Mary of Częstochowa in Cicero
- Architect
- Worthmann & Steinbach
- Style
- Polish Cathedral style
- City
- Chicago, IL
St. Mary of Częstochowa in Cicero is a church of the Archdiocese of Chicago built in the Polish Cathedral style, designed by Worthmann & Steinbach with the opulence and grand scale that style demands. It anchors a parish founded by Polish and German immigrants in Cicero's Hawthorne neighborhood, and it's remembered locally as the church where Al Capone's sister Mafalda married in 1930.
the building
Christ the King sculpture. A sculpture of Christ the King by Professor Czesław Dźwigaj stands in front of the church. Dźwigaj also cast the monumental bronze doors at St. Hyacinth's Basilica in Chicago.
the style
The church is cited as a prime example of the Polish Cathedral style in both its opulence and its grand scale, the tradition immigrant parishes used to build cathedral-sized churches in their new American neighborhoods.
significance
The parish has shifted with its neighborhood: Polish and German immigrants who settled Cicero's Hawthorne area over a century ago have given way to large numbers of Mexican parishioners, and Mass is now offered in Polish, Spanish, and English. A young Polish immigrant population elsewhere in the city still calls the church, and its Black Madonna, their spiritual home.
nearby
- Shedd Park Fieldhouse
- Mr. Robert Silhan House
- Berwyn Health Center
- (Former) Anshe Sholom Synagogue Building
- American State Bank
- Central Park Theater