Priest Founds First Polish Community in America

The first Polish settlement in America, surprisingly, wasn’t New York or Chicago. It was actually a rural Texas community named Panna Maria (Polish for “Virgin Mary”). Today marks the death of Father Leopold Moczygemba, O.F.M. Conv. (1824-1891), a Polish-born priest who was the leading figure behind the founding of that community. Born in Silesia, he joined the Conventual Franciscans and was ordained in Rome in 1847. At the request of Galveston’s Bishop John Odin, he went to Texas to minister to German Catholics living in the area. Writing back to relatives in Poland, then a country under foreign occupation, he talked about the possibilities for a better life in America. In 1854, one hundred families left Poland for Texas, where they started a settlement named in honor of the Blessed Mother. For over thirty years, Father Leopold worked in parishes throughout the North and Northwest. At the time of his death he was a pastor in Dearborn, Michigan. In 1974,

his body was re-interred at Panna Maria.