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SACRED
HEARTH POLISH NATIONAL 5TH ST., NE AND 54TH AVE., NORTH FRIDLEY, MN
Most
of this information was gathered from an interview with Andrew Smoka on
September 17, 2004.
He was caretaker of the cemetery at the time and had been for 30
years. His brother had been
caretaker for many years before that. The cemetery
was established with the church in 1914.
The church stands at the corner of 22nd and 5th
in Northeast Minneapolis. It
is still active. The church
was established because the Polish immigrants arriving in the north east
area were very poor. They
wanted to attend the Roman Catholic Church, but they were too poor and
could not afford to go there. They
began their own church built on the Catholic faith, but with some
differences such as they allow their priests to marry.
There are other “independent” Catholic churches of the same
kind near Pierz, Minnesota. The rule at
first was that you had to be a member of the church to be buried in the
Sacred Heart Cemetery, but that has relaxed a little bit in recent years.
There are no restrictions on where you can place a grave or what
kind of stone is put up as a marker. The wall and
fence around the cemetery were put in during 1970.
There has been much work done, all on a volunteer basis, to get the
cemetery to look as nice as it does today and keep it secure. Notice
the language on some of the stones—it is Polish.
Pay careful attention to the letters near some of the dates.
UR indicates the year of birth and ZM indicates the year of death. |
