When worshippers gathered for the traditional Polish Mass at St. Isidore’s Roman Catholic Church Saturday just before the opening ceremonies of the 42nd Annual Polish Town Street Fair and Festival, they entered a newly refurbished sanctuary that was opening for the first time all summer.
The parish church has been closed for renovations since June, to allow contractors to paint the interior, refinish pews and install new flooring.
Father Piotr Narkiewicz welcomed parishioners and guests to worship in his native tongue — fulfilling one of the main objectives of the founders of the parish, recent Polish immigrants; they worshipped at St. John the Evangelist, and missed hearing the Gospel in the language of their homeland. It’s a tradition still carried out every Sunday morning at St. Isidore’s, where Mass is celebrated in Polish every Sunday morning.
In 1903, the immigrants — mostly farmers — formed a Polish fraternity under the patronage of St. Isidore, the patron saint of farmers, with the hope of organizing a Polish Roman Catholic parish. They purchased a parcel of land on what was then known as Cemetery Street — it would later be renamed Pulaski Street — and converted the old schoolhouse on the property — Riverhead’s first schoolhouse, called the Academy — for use as a church.
The cornerstone of the current cathedral-like building was set and blessed on Nov. 4, 1906 and the church was built over the course of the next year. It was opened and dedicated on Sept. 19, 1907.
The colorful mural above the altar, which depicts Jesus Christ’s triumphant return amidst a host of angels, was painstakingly repainted and restored to its former glory this winter by two Russian artists from a New York City restoration company, Narkiewicz said. The mural, which dates back to the church’s original construction, had been painted over some time in the 1960s and had to be repainted.
The sanctuary was closed for two months to allow the rest of the interior renovations to take place. (Services were held at McGann-Mercy High School.) The church’s high ceilings and all walls and trim were repainted. The alcoves around the statues of Christ and the Virgin Mary were repainted with a new look that returns to a more traditional theme. Like the mural, the alcoves had been repainted in the ‘60s to give them a more “modern” look, Narkiewicz said, and it just didn’t work well.
The church’s wooden pews were refinished and new flooring was installed.
“Everything has just really brightened up in here,” Narkiewicz said after celebrating Saturday morning’s Mass.
The parish held on a $200,000 fundraising campaign to pay for the interior work. It completed an exterior renovation, replacing old siding with new cedar shakes, in 2010.
Volunteers were at the church late into the evening Friday to clean the sanctuary ahead of its grand reopening Saturday morning, Narkiewicz said.
“Now, the whole thing is just beautiful.”
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