Holy Rosary Irish Church

I’ve had an interesting past few weeks insofar as Roseland and Pullman are concerned. The Rev. Mark Krylowicz, pastor at St. Anthony’s, called to let me know that a celebration was taking place on the Sunday following Christmas. In my quest for information on all things Roseland, there was no way I would miss a function at St. Anthony’s.

I arrived early on Dec. 27 for the 9:30 a.m. Mass and soon the parishioners started to stream in and take their places in the pews, but not before they were given a couple of gifts in celebration. Many of the parishioners greeted me warmly and with surprise since most of them only see me at the monthly Spaghetti-Os meeting that attract so many former Roselanders to Carlo Lorenzetti’s in Chicago Heights.

Fr. Mark, Bishop John N. Perry, myself and the parishioners gathered at St. Anthony’s in celebration of a Mass to honor the installation of a new altar, a guardian angel statue, and a large stained glass window honoring the Queen of the Holy Rosary. All of the items had come from Holy Rosary Irish Church.

After Holy Rosary suffered a fire in 1937, the children of the parish took up a collection and presented the guardian angel statue to the parish. The altar was commissioned after the fire and was moved forward in 1967 according to the Vatican Council. The large stained-glass window survived the fire and was removed in 2008, after having been part of Holy Rosary for 100 years. The window shows St. Dominic praying to Mary, Queen of the Holy Rosary. The window was carefully cleaned and re-leaded then placed in a light box frame, and had been refurbished in 1941.

The altar, stained glass window and statue were dedicated as the Shrine of the Queen of the Holy Rosary. In case you’re wondering, the gifts that were given to all those in attendance were a prayer card and a rosary. The card has a photo of the shrine on one side, and the other side has a prayer to Mary the Queen of the Holy Rosary. The rosary was made of fabric and colored green to represent the Irish in Holy Rosary Irish. Everyone who attended gratefully accepted the mementos of the dedication as they headed downstairs to the full breakfast that awaited them.

I suggest you take a ride to St. Anthony’s to attend one of the Sunday Masses. Presently the Sunday schedule has an English Mass at 8:30 and 10:30 a.m. If you would like to call to verify the times, contact the rectory at 773-468-1200.

In Memoriam
Frank Legger from the Spaghetti-Os let me know that his Aunt Rena passed away. Irene (Rena) Guastalli, 95, was the wife of the late Richard of Richard’s Flower Shop, the mother of Rick and Karen, a retiree from Sears, Roebuck, and a longtime Roseland and Glenwood resident. Other recent Roseland passings: Madeline Celani, nee Rago, 95, late of Roseland and South Holland; Pauline M. Griffin, nee Moirano, 70, late of Roseland and Palos Park, retired bookkeeper for Teninga-Bergstrom Realty; and Ronald Ostrowski, 61, husband of Diane (nee Czajkowski), retired Chicago police officer.

Note e Notizie
I recently got together with Dan Bovino of Lansing and Paul Petraitis of Pullman, who organized last summer’s Roseland tour at the Cal-Harbor Restaurant at 115th and Forestville in Pullman. The three of us met to discuss Roseland/Pullman history and the fact that there isn’t any organized group of Roselanders that are into the history of Roseland.

Paul has donated many historical documents and photos of Roseland (view online at pullman-museum.org) that he has gathered since the 1960s when he first became interested Roseland’s history. Within five minutes of talking about Roseland, we came up with the name Roseland Roundtable for a group to discuss, record and uncover historical facts and artifacts concerning Roseland and Pullman to keep the memory alive.

Our plan is to work toward finding a sponsor to help us achieve the goal of creating a Roseland-Pullman Room at the Florence Hotel. It’s just an idea right now, and we need to locate the right people to make this work, especially since the hotel is now directed by the State of Illinois. Let us know if you have any suggestions or comments, or would like to join our Roseland Roundtable for our next meeting at Cal-Harbor.

Contact CJ Martello at 1501 W. Belmont Ave. #708, Chicago, IL 60657; 773-525-7823; or cjfranoi@yahoo.com; Online: Roseland Roundtable on Facebook