The Parish of St. Andrew was established in 1954 as a "mission church" through the efforts of Fr. Lekarczyk, the pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Webster, to provide pastoral care to Poles arriving from the country after the war during the spread of communism in Poland.

It is the first parish in the United States dedicated to the greatest martyr in the history of the Church, St. Andrew Bobola. The altars were brought from Italy. In the main altar: St. Andrew Bobola, St. Stanislaus Kostka, Blessed Bronislava. Side altars: Our Lady of Czestochowa, Jesus the Merciful. The parish has first-class relics of St. Andrew Bobola and St. Faustina.

This year we celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Church’s construction.

I have been serving in this parish for 10 years. In recent years, this parish has struggled with a declining number of faithful due to the lack of new immigration from Poland, and the pandemic caused great devastation in churches. It is a miracle that our parish has no debts. During the pandemic, I fought for survival because Sunday collections were not enough to pay the bills. That’s when the idea came to engage parishioners in cooking Polish meals and selling them on a drive-through basis. It was a hit. This helps the parish sustain itself. We know that many parishes have been closed.

Our Patron, St. Andrew Bobola, helps us in all our endeavors to keep this church alive by bringing people who helped either through their work or financial support.

However, after the pandemic, I concluded that there was no point in continuing to run the parish this way when there were not enough parishioners to sustain it through Sunday collections, and we had to sell Polish dinners to pay the bills.

Doubts and thoughts arose, urging me to ask the Bishop for a meeting to propose merging this parish with a neighboring larger one. I prayed to St. Andrew for God’s will, but I felt God’s providence over this parish. It is one of the few parishes in the diocese that has no debts, and the savings account has grown tenfold thanks to selling dinners and special donations from some parishioners who, together with me, fought for survival.

Seeking God’s will, I requested a meeting with the Bishop to present the proposal for merging with another parish. The day before the scheduled meeting, it was canceled due to sudden changes in the Bishop’s calendar, and the meeting was postponed to the next month.

I was very upset because I had spent a lot of time preparing, but over time I understood that it was God’s will because strange things started happening during this time.

I received a phone call from Chicago from a man who called to order a thanksgiving Mass for his wife, who in February 2023 had a brain stroke, stopped speaking, and walking. When the family started praying to St. Andrew Bobola, she regained her health. He also said that he had a dream to order this Mass at the church of St. Andrew Bobola, and when he began searching online, he found our parish.

After this phone call, I began to wonder what it meant—did St. Andrew indeed perform this miracle? Why did this man have a dream to seek a church of St. Andrew in the USA? I began reading about St. Andrew because I didn’t know much. I didn’t know that he appeared to priests after his death and to pastors in Strachocina, nor had I heard about Fr. Niznik.

When I started reading, I realized that all the apparitions of St. Andrew led to the call to honor him and spread his devotion.

I also understood that in this parish, there had never been prayers to St. Andrew with the litany, no novena, no indulgence on the Patron’s feast day on May 16. Previous pastors did not promote public worship in this parish. I personally prayed privately with the litany to St. Andrew, but not with the people, as there was no such tradition.

This touched me, and I understood that this phone call from Chicago was the voice of St. Andrew—start honoring me in Dudley, and I will help you.

Then I decided to recite the litany to St. Andrew daily after Holy Communion during the week and on Sundays. Two weeks after starting the litany prayers, a lawyer called me informing me that a deceased parishioner had left a sum of money in her will for the parish, and I immediately read this as a sign from St. Andrew, who wants to save this church.

Suddenly, the entire scenario of merging parishes collapsed, and questions arose—what does St. Andrew expect from me? Who brought the relics to Dudley? What did the man’s dream from Chicago mean, to seek a church of St. Andrew in the USA and not call the sanctuary in Warsaw or Strachocina? I started looking to see if there was any other parish in the USA. I found one in Ohio, but it was established later and does not have the relics of St. Andrew.

In prayer, the thought came that maybe St. Andrew wants to have his sanctuary here on American soil? If Our Lady of Czestochowa has a sanctuary in Pennsylvania, Jesus the Merciful in Sturbridge, then maybe St. Andrew Bobola in Dudley? Perhaps he came here in his relics to help the Polish community, perhaps he came with the mission of uniting broken families. He is the patron of unity—and here there are so many divisions, divorces, conflicts, moral decline, and a disappearance of religious practices.

These thoughts about creating a sanctuary deepened, and I began to see a light at the end of the tunnel, but I had fears about how my proposal would be received by the Bishop.

I began preparing again for the meeting with the Bishop and went to the meeting very positively minded, but first, I presented the negative points of the parish (decline in parishioners, baptisms, weddings). Then the Bishop asked—do you want to merge this parish. I replied—no, because I think that Jesus does not want me to give up. And I began to say that I see certain signs that God and the Patron of this parish want to keep this church because it is a miracle that this parish, despite the decline in parishioners, has no debts, and the savings account has grown tenfold, and when I was determined to come to the Bishop and ask to merge the parishes, another miracle of St. Andrew happened—the parish received a large sum in a bequest from a deceased parishioner.

I presented to the Bishop the figure of St. Andrew, who confirms his presence with many miracles in Poland, but I also think in this parish. He wants to have his sanctuary here on American soil to help the Polish community. Ten million Poles live here, and St. Andrew is present in his holy relics in this parish because he wants to grant graces not only for Poles but for all Christians living here, where there are many denominations of the Catholic Church and other confessions. He came here in these relics with the mission of uniting Christians, supporting them in times of trial and tribulation, so that they do not lose heart and fight for their faith to the end, as he did, even with a willingness to give his life. Pope Pius XII, writing an encyclical about St. Andrew, wrote it with the thought of giving all Christians the example of St. Andrew as a Patron for difficult times, to endure to the end in fidelity to God as he did.

Then, the Bishop interrupted me and said—“I bless you for this work! Please prepare the Novena in May 2024, develop the devotion, and we will see what God’s will is.”

I think many Poles do not know St. Andrew Bobola. I know this from my experience. I knew he existed, but I really started praying to him when I came to this parish and then asked for his help to lead this community to God. That’s when I found the litany in English and sometimes recited it during adoration. Since July 2023, I have been praying daily at all weekday and Sunday Masses. He gave me a sign to start honoring him in this parish when I had to make a decision about the future of this church. When I was tired of coming up with ways to pay the bills, when I was already tired of cooking dinners every month to help the parish, then he gave a sign—he sent a large donation. He wanted to say—don’t worry about material things, focus on building the community, don’t worry that you have few people, start honoring me, and I will help you bring people here to unite in these difficult times. When I began reading daily about St. Andrew, he sends me new thoughts every day on how to build the community. He inspires me to preach sermons to uplift people and speak about the dangers on the path of faith. He gave me the courage to go to the Bishop and tell him what St. Andrew wants and what signs he gave me to save this church from closing. And I believe he wants to have a sanctuary here because many Poles do not yet know him. I don’t think that in the United States the devotion of St. Andrew is widely spread in Polish parishes, maybe sporadically some devotions are organized. I know that in my decision-making, not even in this parish did anyone pray to him. This church of St. Andrew was enriched with his relics so that he would be present among the Polish community, to begin honoring him in their parishes, to help Poles in these difficult times to persevere in faith, and most importantly, to unite their families.

He is a saint for our times to help people survive times of great trials and tribulations. He is the Patron of Poland who helps the homeland when it is in need and calls Poles, above all, to unity. That is why St. Andrew reminds Poles not to repeat the mistakes of the past, but to always strive for unity. This is the task of all Poles and the entire Polish community to promote the devotion of St. Andrew because he promised in his prophecy for Poland that when all Poles begin to honor him, he will intercede with God for the prosperity of our homeland. We must pray to St. Andrew, and he will straighten all the paths for Poles and show the way for the flourishing of the homeland.

Andrew Bobola is an exceptional saint in the history of our nation. He is the patron of our homeland. This dignity was bestowed upon him by God Himself, entrusting him with the care of the Polish nation. In the revelations to Fulla Horak, a 20th-century mystic, he said: “I will help you… People do not fervently enough and as they should turn to me. I can be very helpful in averting great catastrophes. I can bring relief in suffering… Tell people that they are threatened with terrible things because they neglect the matters of inner life. You can always ask me, and I will listen to you.” I think that today Poles need the grace of courage in professing their faith and the support of St. Andrew in defending Christian values, to be faithful to God until the end as he was. He is the Patron of our homeland who reminds us that God, Honor, and Homeland are the values that helped us survive difficult times; they constitute our national identity. These values must be defended, so all Poles should be united and ask St. Andrew for the grace of unity, so that all Poles, living in the homeland and abroad, build the prosperity of the homeland. Poles must stand together again under the Cross of Christ and remember the words of the poet Karol Baliński - “Only under the cross, only under this sign - Poland is Poland, and a Pole is a Pole.” In these times of widespread apostasy and atheism, we Poles must defend the family and the cross because it is the banner of faith for all generations of Poles so that people never forget about God and retain their identity. Therefore, today in our times Poles must defend the cross again and ask St. Andrew for the grace of courage! Therefore, we ask St. Andrew for help in maintaining fidelity to Jesus, because as the Custodian of the sanctuary in Strachocina, Fr. Niznik said in an interview—“It seems that when he became the patron of Poland in 2002, it was so that Poles would see that the third millennium of Christianity would not be so easy and that we would have to be like Andrew Bobola. John Paul II set him as an example for us to follow, so that we would be able to remain steadfast in the Catholic faith, defend it, and not fear those who oppose it.”