Saint Adalbert Catholic Cemetery
Niles, IL U.S.A.
Archdiocese of Chicago
Archdiocese Cemeteries
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Milwaukee Avenue
Maryhill Catholic Cemetery, Niles IL
Maryhill Cemetery

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World War I Memorial

Katyn Memorial

2008 2008 2008 2008 2008

Resurrectionists' Mausoleum

2008 Louis Zajdel reading inscriptions, 2008 2008 2008 2008

Among the 300,000 Interrments...

Examples of gravestones fashioned to follow the old Polish tradition of marking graves with logs or wooden crosses Example of gravestone fashioned to follow the old Polish tradition of marking graves with logs or wooden crosses Another example of a gravestone fashioned to follow the old Polish tradition of marking graves with logs or wooden crosses
Halas Mausoleum - final resting place of George Stanley Halas co-founder of the National Football League and owner of the Chicago Bears Kurtyka Family Monument And I always thought Dracula was a Romanian


Saint Adalbert Catholic Cemetery was founded in 1872 when a group composed of individuals from several Slavic parishes in Chicago selected the site and purchased the land. Poles, Czechs, Moravians, and Slovaks welcomed the prospect of having their own dignified place for Christian burial. Today, with over 300,000 interrments across more than 255 acres, Saint Adalbert has grown to be the largest of the forty-three Catholic cemeteries in the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Alas, all was not perfect in paradise. When a Catholic priest (reportedly the pastor of Saint James Parish on DeKoven Street) refused to allow the burial of Maria Silhanek in consecrated soil in 1876, some members of the Czech community became upset. Led by Frank Zdrubek who was editor of Chicago's Czech-language newspaper and a member of the Bohemian Freethinkers' Society, a group purchased 122 acres of land for Bohemian National Cemetery in 1877. Bohemian National Cemetery still remains a secular, non-denominational cemetery today.



Spuscizna Group's Home Page
Photos by Dennis Benarz and Louis Zajdel
Music by Ginger Hayden
Editor: Dennis Benarz, Chicagoland USA 2008
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