McNamara's Blog
Today in 1836 marks the founding of the Congregation of the Resurrection in France. The first three members were a layman, Bogdan Janski, and two priests, Peter Semenenko and Jerome Kajsiewicz. Living among Polish refugees in Paris, Janski was an intellectual who found in the Gospel’s message the answer to the world’s problems. In his writings he stressed the laity’s role in the life of the Church:
It will be necessary to act in various closely linked ways to unite in order to introduce Christian principles into politics, education, literature, sciences, arts, industry, customs – the entire public and private life of a modern, increasingly pagan society.
He also saw the need for a more educated, and he sent two of his protégés, Semenenko and Kajsiewicz to found a Polish college in Rome, where they were both ordained in 1842. They formed a community about themselves, and they called themselves the Congregation of the Resurrection. The idea was that they would work for the rebirth of a Christian society. The Resurrectionists were (and are) involved primarily in parish work and teaching. They often followed the trail of Polish emigrants around the world. In the United States, they have been most active in Chicago, which by the turn of the century had more Poles than did Warsaw. There they run several parishes and a high school, Gordon Tech.
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