Welcome to the Polish American Journal

October • Październik

Polish American Heritage Month. Sponsored by the Polish American Congress, groups across America’s Polonia celebrate Polonia’s rich background in the United States.

1608. First Poles arrive in America aboard the Mary & Margaret to work as skilled craftsmen at settlement in Jamestown (Virginia). They would later stage the first labor strike in America because they were excluded from the colony’s political decisions.

1944. Nazi troops crushed the 2-month-old (63 days) Warsaw Uprising, during which a quarter-million people were killed.

1412. Union of Horodio cements friendship of Poland and Lithuania.

ST. JOHN DUKLA (1484).

1501.Union of Mielnik, an attempt to unite the Kingdom of Poland with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It was not ratified by the Lithuanian Seimas or by the Polish Sejm Despite the failure to unify two countries into a single state, Poland and Lithuania were under a personal union until the Union of Lublin of 1569.

1996. Poland’s Wislawa Szymborski awarded Nobel Prize for Literature.

1923. Birth of symphonic orchestra leader Stanislaw Skrowaczewski.

ST. FRANCIS

Po Swietym Franciszku,

chodzi bydlo po owsisku.

After Saint Francis Day,

cattle are tended on the oats field.

1705. Stanislaw Leszczynski crowned King of Poland, the first crowned in Warsaw.

1911. Birth of bandleader Frank Wojnarowski, composer of “Matka” and other treasured Polish American songs.

1979. Pope John Paul II’s first visit to United States begins.

ST. FAUSTINA

Maria Faustyna Kowalska (1905-1938), also known as Saint Maria Faustyna Kowalska of the Blessed Sacrament, was a Polish Roman Catholic nun and mystic. Her apparitions of Jesus Christ inspired the Roman Catholic devotion to the Divine Mercy and earned her the title of "Secretary of Divine Mercy."

1763. Death of Augustus III the Saxon. (b. 17 October 1696). King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1734 until 1763, as well as Elector of Saxony in the Holy Roman Empire from 1733 until 1763 where he was known as Frederick Augustus II.

1983. Lech Walesa awarded Nobel Peace Prize.

1788. The Polish Diet decided to hold a four-year session.

1873. Death of Sir Pawel Strzelecki (b. 1797), explorer of Australian continent who named its largest mountain after Tadeusz Kościuszko .
1882. Birth of Karol Szymanowski, Polish composer, in Timoshovka, Ukraine. (d. 1937)

1986. Most Rev. John F. Swantek elected Prime Bishop of the Polish National Catholic Church.

ST. MARK

Gdy Św. Marek, z mrozem przybywa,

Babie Lato, Krótkie bywa.

If it is freezing on St. Mark’s, Indian Summer will be short.

1944. Founding of the Marie Curie-Sklodowska Institute in Lublin.

ST. BRIGID

O Swietej Brigidzie, Babie lato przyjdzie.

About the St. Brigid’s day, Indian summer will arrive.

1960. U.S. stamp issued to honor Ignacy Jan Paderewski.

1982. All labor organizations in Poland, including Solidarity, banned by Communist-controlled government.

2003. Death of Msgr. John Gabalski, fifth pastor of St. Stanislaus Parish, mother church of Buffalo Polonia.

1979. Czeslaw Milosz awarded Nobel Prize for literature.

1435. Death of Pawel Wlodkowic, model for Shakespeare’s Polonius (Hamlet).

1982. Pope John Paul II canonizes Maximilian Maria Kolbe (1894-1941), a Polish Franciscan friar, who volunteered to die in place of another inmate at Auschwitz concentration camp.

1982. U.S. imposes sanctions against Poland for banning Solidarity trade union.

1733. France declares war on Austria over the question of Polish succession.

1794. Russian Army under Gen. Alexander Suvorov takes Warsaw and captures Tadeus Kosciusko at Maciejowice. T. Vavzeckis was became the new commander of the revolutionary forces.

1899. Death of Mother Angela Truszkowska (b. 1825), founder of the Felician Sisters.

1945. The Polish Arts Club of Buffalo is founded.

1779. Date traditionally observed in American Polonia as Pułaski Day in honor of death of Casimer Pułaski, 34, Polish-born American patriot, who died from battle wounds suffered at Savannah, Georgia. In 2005, his alleged remains were reinterned in a monument named in his honor in Savannah.

1968. Birth of actress and singer Jane Krakowski, best known for her role as Jenna Maroney on the sitcom 30 Rock, for which she received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. She also received acclaim for her performance as Elaine Vassal on Ally McBeal, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.

1891. Edith Stein was born to a Jewish family at Breslau. Through her passionate study of philosophy, she searched after truth and found it in reading the autobiography of St. Teresa of Jesus. In 1922 she was baptized a Catholic and in 1933 she entered the Carmel of Cologne where she took the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. She was gassed and cremated at Auschwitz on August 9, 1942, during the Nazi persecution and died a martyr for the Christian faith after having offered her holocaust for the people of Israel.

1672. Signing of the Peace of Buczacz (also said to be signed on the 16 or 18), in Buczacz (now Buchach, Ukraine) between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire, ending the first phase of the Polish-Ottoman War (1672-1676). Hostilities resumed in the spring of 1673 as the Sejm never ratified the treaty.

1840. Birth of Helena (Modjeska) Modrzejewska (d. April 8, 1909), Polish American stage actress, in Krakow, Poland.

1935. Birth of former New York Yankees shortstop and sportscaster Tony Klubek.

ST. EDWARD

Na Edwarda jesieńń twarda.

On St. Edward’s Day, the autumn is hard.

1943. Some 300 of 600 prisoners escaped from the Nazi’s Sobibor death camp in occupied Poland. The event was later documented in the book “Escape from Sobibor” by Richard Rashke (1982) and the film of the same name with Alan Arkin. Josef Vallaster, an Austrian guard, was among 11 SS officers and 11 Ukrainians killed in the escape. Most of the escaped prisoners were killed as they fled. Only 50 prisoners survived the war. Vallaster had operated the motor that funneled gas into Sobibor’s shower rooms.

1773. Poland creates the Commission of National Education.

1903. Birth of Stefan Jarosz, geographer who explored Alaska.

St. Hedwig

In old Poland, the last of the crops are harvested around the feast of St. Hedwig.

Św. Jadwiga, jesli deszcz nie pada,

To do kapusty Pan Bog miodunada.

On St. Hedwig’s, if it’s not raining

God grants honey to the cabbage.

1817. Death of Tadeusz AB Kosciusko (b. 1746), Polish Lt-Gen. and American Revolution freedom fighter, in Solothurn, Switzerland.

1582. Poland adopts the Gregorian calendar.

1910. Death of boxing legend Stanislaw (Keciel) Ketchel.

1945. Poland, not present at United Nations organizing conference earlier in the year, signs UN Charter, and is considered one of the five founding member states.

1384. Coronation of Jadwiga, the first female monarch of the Kingdom of Poland, reigning this day until her death. She was the youngest daughter of Louis the Great, King of Hungary and Poland, and his wife Elizabeth of Bosnia. Jadwiga was a member of the Capetian House of Anjou, but she had more close forebears among the Polish Piasts. In 1997 she was canonized by the Roman Catholic Church.

1978. Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, 58, named Pope John Paul II, the 264 pope and the first non-Italian pope since Adrian VI in 1522. He is the first-ever Polish pontiff (d. 2005).

1940. Nazi SS troops form the Warsaw Ghetto.

1886. Birth of David Ben-Gurion (d.1973), Israeli statesman, in Plonsk, Poland. He was the 1st PM of Israel and served from 1948-53 and in 1955.

1973. Death of swing and jazz drummer Gene Krupa.

1676. Signing of the Treaty of Żurawno concludes the Polish-Ottoman War.

1777. Americans win crucial Revolutionary War Battle of Saratoga. Victory is credited in large to engineering feats of Tadeusz Kościuszko.

1849. Death of Polish composer and pianist Fryderyk Chopin, 39, in Paris.

ST. LUKE

All field work should be completed by this day.

“Sw. Lukasz, co w polu szukasz?

St. Luke’s Day, what are you looking for in the fields? “

1981. General Wojciech Jaruzelski is made head of the Polish Communist [United Workers] Party.

1815. Free City of Kraków proclaimed.

1776. Thaddeus Kościuszko, 30, Polish and American patriot, is given a commission in the American Revolutionary Army.

1984. Abduction and murder of Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko (b. 1947), Roman Catholic priest from Poland, associated with the Solidarity union. He was murdered by three agents of the Polish communist internal intelligence agency, Security Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who were shortly thereafter tried and convicted of the murder. He has been recognized as a martyr by the Catholic Church, and was beatified on 6 June 6, 2010.

1466. Treaty of Torun ended the 13-year War of the Cities (1454-1466), between the Teutonic knights and their own disaffected subjects in Prussia. The Peace of Thorn (Torún) ended the war between the Teutonic knights (a German military and religious order) and their subjects in Prussia, led by King Casimir IV (1427-1492) of Poland. Poland was given Pomerelia and West Prussia, and the knights retained East Prussia, with a new capital at Königsberg (Kaliningrad). The knights, formerly strictly a German order, were forced to accept Poles as members and their grand master became a vassal of the Polish king.

1813. Death of Józef Poniatowski, general in Napoleon’s army.

1948. Birth of Congressman Robert Borski, of Pennsylvania.

1982. Death of Korczak Ziolkowski, sculptor of the Crazy Horse Memorial in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

1990. Plaque honoring abolitionist John Brown supporter, Polish poet Cyprian Norwid, unvieled at Harper’s Ferry.

1905. Following the Revolution in the Kingdom of Poland (1905–1907), also known as the Polish Revolution of 1905 —a major part of the Russian Revolution of 1905 in Russian-partitioned Poland — Russian tsar Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov allowed Polish people to speak Polish.

St. Ursula

Od Sw. Urszuli

oczekuj snieznej koszuli

From St. Ursula Day on,

expect a snowy (winter) shirt.

1890. Death of John Strentzel, physician and horticulturist who came to California as a ’49er.

1914. Battle of Warsaw ended with a German defeat.

1978. Cardinal Karol Wojtyla of Krakow, Poland is installed as Pope John Paul II.

1990. Birth of Actor Jonathan Lipnicki (“Stuart Little,” “Jerry Maguire,” “The Little Vampire”)

1940. Stan “Stas” Jasinski, age 25, broadcasts his first Polish radio program in Buffalo. Undoubtedly the greatest Polish broadcaster in the history of Buffalo Polonia, he later establishes a radio station, television station, and is inducted in the International Polka Association Hall of Fame. He also is the recipient of numerous civic awards. He retired from broadcasting June 4, 2000 after a remarkable 60 years on the radio. (d. 2005).

1656. Treaty of Vilnius, a a truce during the Russo-Polish War (1654–67) and an anti-Swedish alliance in the contemporaneous Second Northern War. In return for ceasing hostilities and fighting Sweden alongside Poland–Lithuania, the treaty promised Alexis of Russia succession in Poland after John II Casimir Vasa’s death

1795. Third Partition of Poland, which removed the country from a political map of Europe.

1919. Birth of Frank Piasecki, inventor of the tandem-rotor helicopter.

1916. Birth of Polish American philanthropist and businessman Edward Piszek.

1891. Death of Pawel Stelmach, writer and promoter of Polish heritage in Cieszyn, Silesia.

1910. Birth of Cardinal John Krol, Archbishop of Philadelphia, and Polonian activist.

1940. Death of painter Olga Boznanska.

1939. The arrest of Polish President Stefan Starzynski by the Gestapo in Warsaw.

1946. Birth of television gameshow “Wheel of Fortune” host Pat Sajak.

St. Simon

Na Świeto Szymona,

babie lato już kona.

On St. Simon’s Day,

Indian Summer is dying.

1824. Birth of the founder of the first permanent Polish settlement in the United States at Panna Maria, Texas, Rev. Leopold Bonawentura Moczygemba.

1138. Death of Boleslaw III Krzywusty, was a Prince of Lesser Poland, Silesia and Sandomierz between 1102-1107 and over the whole Poland between 1107-1138.

1611. Hetman Stefan Zolkiewski returns to Warsaw from conquering the Muskovites brings with him the captured Czar.

1944. Polish 1st Corps, commanded by General Stanisław Maczek, takes Breda, Holland as part of the Allied invasion of Western Europe.

1939. USSR and Germany agreed on partitioning Poland. Hitler deports Jews.

1940. Nazis declare this day as the deadline for Warsaw Jews to move into the Warsaw Ghetto.