Salezjans among American Polonia 1910-1985

Abstract

Salezjans arrived in the United States in 1897 to help Italian emigrants. Because among the Catholics who attended the „salezjan” churches were also Poles, the superiors sent Rev. Tomasz Patalong and alumnus Michał Wajdziak there. They were both from Silesia. In the following years there arrived further fellow brothers of Polish origin. They organised aCatholic parish in Port Chester, which they then transferred to the diocese in 1915 because there no staff. Another pastoral and school post was initiated in Mahweh. The most important work of the Polish Salezjans was the boarding school in Ramsey. Initially, for two years the school for Poles existed as a Polish section at the Italian institution in Hawthorne. In April 1915 the Polish Salezjans moved to Ramsey, and called the institution Don Bosco High School. In the inter-war period the boarding school was very popular and won recognition in the states of New Jersey and New York. Due to the diminishing number of students during the Second World War, boys from other nationalities were admitted, and after the war externs too. In 1971 the board of directors of the educational-formative institution was handed to Americans. The Polish Salezjans who lived in Ramsey eagerly took up the job of preaching and organising recollections in Polish centres in America.